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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharlie Morgan didn’t get her last wish.
Charlie Morgan didnt get her last wish.
On Sunday morning, the New Hampshire National Guard soldier succumbed to Stage IV breast cancer after a long battle against the disease and a federal law that now leaves her widow with none of the benefits a grateful nation bestows on its straight warriors.
As I wrote here on Thanksgiving, Morgan, who came out as a lesbian on MSNBC in September 2011, the day the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy became history, hoped she would outlive the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Clinton-era law forbids Karen, her legally married wife, from receiving the survivor benefits other military widows get.
That money would have gone a long way toward helping raise their young daughter Casey. Just like the death benefits Charlies mother got when her soldier husband died in an accident during the Vietnam War went to pay for food and a roof for young Charlie.
the rest:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/02/10/soldier-dies-of-breast-cancer-but-her-widow-wont-get-benefits/?tid=pm_politics_pop
yardwork
(61,690 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)2naSalit
(86,748 posts)but the House teabaggers have taken it to the SCOTUS on our dime, with the pisspoor argument to defend it, the WH won't defend it and they said so last year or earlier. Another heartless cruelty of the teabag faction.
Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)To realize that her wife and daughter are deprived of benefits they should receive makes my blood boil.
This is why it's a civil rights issue.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Sad... and so unreasonable.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)told "regular" couples that they should marry because of the benefits involved.
It's totally stupid that two people can't marry just because they happen to have the same kind of genitals.