It's more symbolic than substantive,
but the Republican-led House on Friday approved a defense spending
bill that includes two anti-gay amendments, the AP reported.
The last-minute efforts to undermine
repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” the 1993 law that bans gay and
bisexual troops from serving openly, and prop up a federal ban on gay
marriage in the military, were led by North Carolina Representative
Virginia Foxx.
Republicans, with help from some
Democrats, approved the $650-billion defense spending bill that
includes the amendments.
Foxx's measure,which was supported by
19 Democrats, would bar the military from using federal funds to
recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples. Foxx's amendment
is in response to a Navy statement that asserted that the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), the law that bars federal agencies from
recognizing the marriages of gay and lesbian couples, would not
prohibit same-sex couples from marrying on base once the military's
gay ban is repealed. (The
Navy has since shrunk from the statement, saying it needed further
review.)
(Related: Pentagon
suspends DADT in wake of court order.)
“This amendment is completely
unnecessary and only serves to cloud the debate over 'Don't Ask,
Don't Tell' repeal by pointlessly injecting the issue of marriage
equality into the conversation,” said Joe Solmonese, president of
the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay rights
advocate. “Since Pentagon officials have made it clear that they
are bound by DOMA like every other federal agency, it's puzzling why
Rep. Foxx would question whether our military leaders understand this
point.”
A second amendment, sponsored by Kansas
Representative Tim Huelskamp, would deny funding of training for
military chaplains.
Huelskamp also suggested that the
military was backing gay marriage: “I fear that chaplains who
refuse to perform these ceremonies may find themselves under attack
and their careers threatened.”
“Repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
was supposed to be about allowing people in the military to serve
openly, not about promoting same-sex marriage in contravention of the
Defense of Marriage Act,” Huelskamp added.
The amendments most likely won't find
sufficient support in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“House Republican leaders seem to
have no end to their desire to play politics with lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people instead of tackling real problems,”
Solmonese said. “It will be up to the Senate to reject the House's
return to using LGBT Americans as a wedge issue.”