Martin Dempsey Committed To Equality For Married Gay Couples In The Military

General Martin Dempsey, the 18^th and current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says he's committed to ensuring equality for married gay and lesbian couples in the military.

Following the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), all federal agencies, including the Pentagon, must recognize the legal marriages of gay couples.

(Related: Gay plaintiffs triumph at Supreme Court: DOMA struck down, Prop 8 dismissed.)

In an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Dempsey said that the United States military was prepared to follow the law.

“With DOMA overturned, and now there's still some discussion to be had about how this will manifest itself in policy decisions, but, I mean, clearly we will follow the law of the land and we will provide as much equity in the way we deal with people as possible,” Dempsey said “That's who we are as an institution.”

“The question is, you know, at this point less than half the states allow same-sex marriage and we're trying to figure out how that affects us, because we got installations all over the country. But I can assure you that we are committed to following the law of the land and the law of the land now requires us to find ways to increase benefits to those who are married, albeit same-sex married.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)