National Guard leaders in several southern states continue to be
hellbent on being bigoted in defiance not just of Defense Department policy but of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's explicit order that they issue military spouse IDs to same-sex military spouses.
After the Supreme Court's decision striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act led the Defense Department to say it would recognize same-sex marriages, a few states looked for ways to make it difficult for couples to get that recognition. Ways like forcing them to drive hours to bases located on federal land, rather than issuing the IDs at state facilities. Last week, Hagel let the National Guards of nine states— Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Indiana—know that equality isn't optional, ordering them to recognize same-sex military spouses. So far, only Indiana has complied. South Carolina is taking the approach of making things harder for everyone, forcing all National Guard spouses to go to federal bases to get their IDs.
The states refusing to comply with Hagel's order point to state laws against marriage equality. But John Aravosis points out:
... there’s a little known fact that the National Guard, while split in its administration between the states and the federal government, tends to get the lion’s share of its funding from the feds.
Take Mississippi (please). The Mississippi National Guard annual report for fiscal year 2011 shows that the state of Mississippi appropriated almost $7.8 million for the state National Guard. In that same year, the federal government gave the Mississippi National Guard $679 million. In 2012, the figures were similar: $685 million from the feds, $7.2 million from the state of Mississippi. [...]
Things get awfully interesting when you’ve got federal money mixed in with state money, as it’s against federal law - as set by the US Supreme Court – to use federal money to deny federal benefits in any way to married gay couples. It’s all well and good for states like Mississippi to pretend that the National Guard is “theirs,” but when the feds are paying 99% of the tab, legally the Mississippi National Guard belongs to Uncle Sam.
As for the Mississippi constitution and the other state constitutions banning gay marriage, the US Constitution trumps any of their documents, individually or collectively.
But apparently for some states, it's not enough to have gone down in history on the wrong side of segregation. Now they have to make a stand on the wrong side of history—and the law—once again.
