Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, center, has told Texas to stop discriminating.
Texas is still looking for—and finding—ways to
discriminate against its LGBT servicemembers, despite Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel explicitly telling Texas and eight other states to stop discriminating and start giving equal benefits to all married couples. The Texas Military Force, which includes the state's National Guard, is now refusing to process housing allowances for servicemembers in same-sex marriages, saying it offer benefits from state facilities because of the state's ban on marriage equality. This forces couples instead to travel to federal installations to apply. Texas being a very large state, that can mean hundreds of miles of extra travel to get the benefits to which they're legally entitled.
Oh, but Texas claims it's all fine and good, because it's not actually stopping people from getting their housing allowances, just making them really difficult to get:
“We want every gay National Guard member entitled to benefits to obtain those benefits,” said Texas Military Forces spokeswoman Laura Lopez. “We are not denying any benefits for people who are entitled to them, to include housing.”
Lopez added that gay couples who have been approved for the “with dependent” housing allowance will “absolutely get that rate.”
"But not until we've made it crystal clear that they're second-class citizens, because we're disgusting bigots" she might as well have added.