Pentagon

The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm Chuck Hagel to be the nation's next defense secretary. The vote Tuesday was 58-41, with four Republicans joining Democrats in backing President Barack Obama's nominee. [ Read more → ]

A bitterly divided Senate panel on Tuesday voted to approve President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be the nation's defense secretary at a time of turmoil for the military with looming budget cuts, a fresh sign of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. [ Read more → ]

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Monday announced he will extend to nearly the full extent permitted under current law the benefits available to gay and lesbian service members and their families. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials said Tuesday that outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is poised to extend some benefits to the same-sex partners of military members. [ Read more → ]

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel has pledged to “move forward expeditiously” on the issue of extending partner benefits to gay service members if confirmed for the role as defense secretary. [ Read more → ]

More than 15 months since the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's former ban on openly gay service members, the U.S. Department of Defense continues to block access to websites it categorizes as LGBT. [ Read more → ]

Military spouses’ organizations aren’t just social clubs – they provide critical support to families that face challenges that civilian families don’t understand - long separations due to training and deployment, stresses on everyone in the family when a loved one goes to war. Most Army wives, and husbands recognize that we need each others’ support to deal with the tough challenges of military life – and that we’re all in this together. So what the heck is wrong at Fort Bragg? [ Read more → ]

ARLINGTON, Va. -- In a Pentagon auditorium Tuesday that normally seats 350 persons, a standing room only crowd celebrated as the U.S. Department of Defense marked “LGBT Pride Month” for the first time in its history. [ Read more → ]

Today, the Pentagon will hold its first ever event honoring LGBT pride month and Linda Harvey is predictably outraged, calling it " yet another low level of ungodliness" reached by the Obama administration and a "sad, sad time for the United States": [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson is set to keynote a Pride celebration for gay service members and LGBT civilians next week, the Washington Blade has learned. [ Read more → ]

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Friday released a video recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month, and thanked the families of gay and lesbian service members and LGBT civilians. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Friday identified a total of 14 benefits where members may designate beneficiaries of their choosing, regardless of sexual orientation, but the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) said the announcement does nothing "to move the ball forward" in providing equal benefits for legally married gay and lesbian couples. [ Read more → ]

Nearly 2,000 members of the military-affiliated Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL) have pledged not to perform same-sex "wedding" ceremonies under any circumstances, despite a recent Pentagon directive that authorizes chaplains to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies, and military chapels to be used for "any private ceremony." [ Read more → ]

The U.S. Department of Defense on Friday announced Friday that the Chaplain Corps of the armed forces are authorized to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies for same-sex military couples in states where same-sex marriage is legal. [ Read more → ]

After almost 70 years since receiving an "undesirable" discharge because he is gay, Melvin Dwork, a World War II Navy veteran has had his discharged finally changed to "honorable," reported the Associated Press. [ Read more → ]

The two ranking Republicans on U.S. House Armed Services Committee have asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to delay the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" scheduled for next Tuesday, Sept. 20, claiming that certain regulations regarding military benefits for same sex couples have not been revised. [ Read more → ]

President Barack Obama has formally signed the certification that repeals the ban on gays serving openly in the military. [ Read more → ]

A federal court on Monday ordered the Obama Administration to reveal whether it intends to defend the constitutionality of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military's ban on openly gay service members. [ Read more → ]

The Pentagon has ordered a halt to all separations of gay and lesbian service members under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” complying with a ruling this week in federal court that ordered an immediate halt to the ban’s enforcement. [ Read more → ]

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday morning voted in favor of an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that prohibits the use of funds to implement training on the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law for chaplains. [ Read more → ]