Tasty

Resolved: Morningstar Farms Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuits are far better than anything from the frozen food aisle really has any right to be.

Today is just *fabulous*

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is officially a thing of the past. You can now be as queer as you want to in the US military and not get kicked out for it! Which is pretty cool; we've now joined progressive nations such as Albania, Colombia, South Africa, Slovenia, and Uruguay. And also every other NATO country.

However, please don't think that we actually offer *equality* now. There's still a federal law on the books called the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Since the military is run by the feds, the military is required to abide by DOMA. In order to understand the significance of this, we first need a crash course in how military pay works.

For the sake of this discussion there's two main types of military pay: your base pay (ie, the set amount that everyone at your pay grade gets per month), and allowances. Allowances come in various types, are tax-free and are generally meant for a specific 'purpose'. If you live off-post you get a "Basic Allowance for Housing" - how much it is depends on your pay grade, the cost of living where you're assigned and how many dependents (spouse and children) you have. A similar allowance is the Basic Allowance for Subsistence  which is meant to support your food budget. Then there's also things like the Family Separation Allowance, which is money you get if you're living geographically separated from your dependents. None of these take into consideration how much money your spouse makes: you could be married to a billionaire and you'd still get the same BAS and BAH. Even at my relatively low pay grade, these allowances can add up to a fair amount - someone the same rank as I am who's married may be bringing home at least twice as much money as I do.

So there's arguably some injustice in that system to begin with: having a dependent (even a spouse who works full-time themselves) automatically nets you a lot more money.

DOMA, of course, says that the federal government can't recognize same-sex marriage. Since the federal government writes our paychecks, the military can't recognize same-sex marriage. Which means, if you are a gay service member, you now get the privilege of saying, "Yup, not straight."

You do not get the privilege of being eligible to move out of the barracks (if you're junior enlisted) or to live in family housing on-post, or collect BAH and BAS at the with-dependents rate. You are not eligible to have your spouse live in on-post housing with you, nor will you get separation pay for not being able to live with them. Your spouse will not be considered a military dependent at all, which means amongst other things, they are not eligible for the highly-subsidized health care plans the military offers families. They are not eligible for any of the support programs the military offers families.

It's my opinion that the main problem is not that a gross double standard between hetero- and homosexual relationships persists; it's that there is a gross double standard between how single and married soldiers are treated. I, at the age of 25, need to live in the barracks, but the 18-year-old who got married to the guy she met in training and has known for all of six months gets a free house? Obviously the issue is all tied up in our nation's heteronormative mindset, but - still.

Baby steps are better than no steps at all, I suppose...