|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
Defense bill worries some
by Lisa Keen, Keen News Service 2013-12-11
|
|
This article shared 2965 times since Wed Dec 11, 2013
|
|
Leaders of the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services committees announced Monday that they have reached an agreement on the defense authorization bill for the coming year, including some provisions LGBT activists have opposed.
The National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) proposal calls for authorizing the Defense Department to spend $625.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2014. Later, an appropriations bill will approve the specific amount of money to be turned over to the department for FY 14 spending. This year's NDAA has been bogged down in debates over efforts to address the growing number of sexual assaults against service members, particularly female service members.
But there were also some amendments offered that LGBT activists opposed. For instance, the House passed its version of NDAA with an amendment from Rep. John Fleming ( R-La. ) that would require DOD accommodate the religious beliefs, actions, and speech of service members. Some believed that amendment was intended to allow service members to express their hatred of gays. Fleming's amendment also required that DOD have no limit on such activities unless it could prove the activities would "actually harm" military order and discipline. President Obama promised to veto a bill with this language.
In a press release Monday, the House-Senate leadership said the new bill "requires the accommodation of individual expressions of moral and religious beliefs by service members unless such expressions of belief could have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, and good order and discipline."
Human Rights Campaign Government Affairs Director David Stacy said HRC opposed adoption of the Fleming Amendment by the House Armed Services Committee. He said HRC also opposed an amendment in the Senate Armed Services Committee by Senator Ted Cruz ( R-Tex. ) before it was modified. The original Cruz amendment sought to provide service members with the "rights of conscience" to "express their religious faith" and to have the DOD Inspector General to investigate religious discrimination and "any undue influence" by outside groups in creating DOD policy regarding religious matters. It also called for a survey of military chaplains to determine whether Defense policies forced them to violate their conscience.
The NDAA proposal released Monday "requires the DOD IG to assess and report on compliance with regulations for the protection of rights of conscience of service members." It also "Requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a survey of military chaplains to assess whether restrictions placed on prayers offered in public or non-religious settings have prevented the military chaplains from exercising the tenets of their faith as prescribed by their endorsing faith group or have had an adverse impact on their ability to minister to service members and their families."
On a positive note, the NDAA proposal finally removes from the Uniform Code of Military Justice a long-standing law prohibiting consensual sodomy. It also "Requires the Secretary of Defense to report on DOD personnel policies regarding members of the armed forces with human immunodeficiency virus or Hepatitis B and assess whether the policies reflect a medically accurate understanding of how these conditions are contracted, how they can be transmitted to others, and the risk of transmission."
© 2013 Keen News Service. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
This article shared 2965 times since Wed Dec 11, 2013
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | WORLD Israeli reservist, man detained, Ghana bill, medic denied honor 2024-03-08 - Hanania Ben-Shimonthe gay Israel Defense Forces reservist who was wounded as he killed one of the terrorists in the attack at the A-Za'ayem checkpoint near Ma'ale Adumim recentlypublished a post in which he pleaded that his ...
|
| | NATIONAL Chuck Schumer, anti-marriage bill, drag event back on, military doctor 2024-02-23 - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced his support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)and, as a result, several LGBTQ+-advocacy organizations dropped their opposition to it, The Hill ...
|
| | Col. Jennifer Pritzker comments on military museum move 2024-02-13 - Local transgender philanthropist Col. Jennifer Pritzker commented to Windy City Times about the impending move of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library (PMML), which she founded in 2003, to Wisconsin. "At the end of the day, ...
|
| | Pritzker Military Library to close in July, move to Wisconsin 2024-02-08 - On Feb. 7, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library announced that it is closing its downtown Chicago location on July 27 and moving to an archives center in Wisconsin later this year, according to The Chicago ...
|
| | PASSAGES Paris Johnson 2023-12-29 - Paris Johnson, 29, of Chicago's West Loop neighborhood, passed away unexpectedly Nov. 28. He would have celebrated his 30th birthday Dec. 20. Born into a military family in Sacramento, California, Paris moved often in his youth, ...
|
| | NATIONAL Women's college, banned books, military initiative, Oregon 2023-12-29 - After backlash regarding a decision to update its anti-discrimination policy and open enrollment to some transgender applicants, a Catholic women's college in Indiana will return to its previous admission policy, per The National Catholic Reporter. In ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Music awards, military film, Tom of Finland, Yo-Yo Ma, 'Harley Quinn' 2023-11-17 Video below - Brothers Osborne—a duo that includes gay brother TJ Osborne—won Vocal Duo of the Year for the sixth time at the recent CMA Awards, per a media release. Backstage, TJ told reporters, "I did not expect us ...
|
| | AVER celebrates LGBTQ+ veterans at annual Veterans Day dinner 2023-11-12 - Writer and historian Owen Keehnen was keynote speaker at the the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) Chicago Chapter's 32nd annual LGBTQ Veterans Day Banquet held on Veterans Day at Ann Sather restaurant on Belmont. Keehnen ...
|
| | South Korean court upholds military 'sodomy law' 2023-10-28 - For the fourth time, South Korea's constitutional court has upheld two anti-LGBTQ+ lawsincluding the country's notorious military "sodomy law," The Guardian reported. By a vote of five to four, the court confirmed the constitutionality of ar ...
|
| | WORLD Couple's win, attack in Beirut, German military, gay ski week 2023-09-08 - In Strasbourg, France, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bulgaria violated the rights of a same-sex couple (Darina Koilova and Lili Babulkova) by not recognizing their marriage abroad, RFE/RL reported. Rights groups lauded the ...
|
| | 'We've had a ball': Prominent activists Jim Darby and Patrick Bova celebrate 60th anniversary 2023-09-07 - One of the first couples to be legally married in Illinois is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. Jim Darby and Patrick Bova fell in love decades before they became the lead plaintiffs in Lambda Legal's ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Military drama, Janelle Monae, Conan Gray, Dylan Mulvaney, Whoopi 2023-08-31 - The LGBTQ+ military drama Eismayer (from Dark Star Pictures and Golden Girls Film) will be out in theaters on Oct. 6, and on DVD and Digital on Oct. 10, per a press release. The plot is ...
|
| | FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act would undercut equality, Modern Military Assoc of America comments 2023-07-14 --From a press release - Washington D.C. - Anti-equality House members are using the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act to pass dangerous amendments targeting healthcare, gender-affirming care, education, and LGBTQ+ friendly services and resources. The ...
|
| | WORLD Pride celebrations, puberty blockers, British military, killer sentenced 2023-06-16 - Gay Pride Buenos Aires is slated to take place Oct. 27-Nov. 4, according to GayTravel4U.com. More than 30 organizations and groups host activities that will begin a week before the parade (which is on Nov. 4). ...
|
| | VIEWPOINT War in the 21st Century: mercenaries, private military companies, private armies 2023-05-20 - In 2022, $407 billion of the Pentagon budget—representing half of that year's funding —were obligated to private contractors, of which a significant number were Private Military Companies (PMCs) involved in ...
| |
|
|
|
|