President Obama signs the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, one of the advances that led to this moment.
It's an equality first from the Department of Veterans Affairs,
but in a sad way:
Tracy Dice Johnson, a staff sergeant with the Army National Guard, announced Sunday that the VA would recognize her marriage to the late Donna Johnson, who died in a suicide bombing attack about eight months before last year’s Supreme Court decision that guaranteed equal federal benefits for all legally married couples.
The decision means Johnson will receive dependency and indemnity compensation, which goes to the spouses, children and some parents of service members who died while on active duty. The VA will pay her retroactively to the date of her late wife’s death, according to an announcement from the American Military Partners Association.
The two big legal advances in equality—marriage equality and the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell Now—are wrapped up in one story here, and that's great. Now if we could just work on producing fewer war widows, and also extending the right to not be fired for being gay from the military to all workplaces.