Same-Sex Military Divorce and the USFSPA
Will the USFSPA extend to a Gay or Lesbian Military Divorce?
If you follow Former Military Spouse on Google+, you saw where we shared the article about Ashley Broadway and her spouse, Army Lt. Col. Heather Mack. Could this be the first step toward policies handling same-sex military divorce?
Broadway, a lesbian, was upset about the Ft. Bragg, N.C. Officer’s Spouse club (a private organization) denying her membership (due to lack of ownership of a military spouse ID Card).
After much publicity, the Officer’s Spouse club changed their stance on same-sex military couples’ membership and offered Broadway a special guest membership — which she turned down. (Full membership would permit her to vote on club matters.)
Article highlights:
“Stephen L. Peters II, president of the American Military Partner Assn., which advocates for lesbian and gay military families, called the spouse group’s offer “not only offensive, but ridiculous.”
In a statement, Peters called guest membership “a second-class membership.” If the spouse group now says it does not require a military ID, he said, then Broadway is eligible for full membership.
…Ft. Bragg military officials have declined to intercede, saying the spouse group is a private organization and is breaking no laws.
…The Department of Defense says it has been reviewing military benefits for same-sex couples following repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in September 2011, with an eye toward expanding the benefits.”See the Broadway story.
Will DEERS, Dependent Military Spouse IDs, and division of retirement pay come next?
The 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages, so how will states treat military divorce benefits?
Can states apply the federal USFSPA law to divide military retirement pay in a state recognized same-sex marriage?
Federal law trumps state law, and federal law does not recognize gay and lesbian unions as marriages. However, the USFSPA (federal law) permits state courts to treat military disposable retired pay as divisible property in a divorce, essentially telling states, “Handle military pay division as you see fit.”
“… for military [same-sex] couples with a legal marriage who seek divorce, presumably a state court would divide their property just [as] it would the property of any other married couple, although certainly that is an open question of law at this time.” (Comments from Law Office of Hugh O. Allen, Sacramento, CA)
It seems reasonable that a judge might state “Our state declares this union a marriage, the USFSPA gives us the right to divide retirement pay, we would divide it for a heterosexual marriage, so I will order a division of pay.”
If a state did divide military retired pay in a same-sex divorce, one could assume that DFAS would reject any court order to pay a former spouse with no military dependent ID card; not enrolled in DEERS. To comply with the court order the service member would then have to write a check payable to the military former spouse. Complications begin to arise, one being that there is no tax form generated for the former spouse to report his/her receipt of the taxable military retirement pay.
Getting Creative with Same-Sex Military Divorce
Suppose your viewpoint is that even if the state recognizes the gay or lesbian military marriage, the state cannot divide military retirement pay. How will judges determine what is “fair and equitable” in a military divorce?
It seems lawyers with this viewpoint will still look for ways to be fair and equitable toward the soon to be ex-spouse:
“By law, marital property is to be divided equitably, but not necessarily evenly, in divorce. That’s nearly impossible to do for same-sex couples, said Cheong [a Maine divorce attorney]. If one partner has a military pension or Social Security benefits or any other benefits from a federal job, the other [same-sex] partner would not have any legal right to a portion of that money. Cheong said attorneys handling divorces of same-sex couples often have to look for other ways to divide a couple’s assets.” Portland Press, Maine
9 States Approve Same-Sex Marriage as of Jan 2013
- Connecticut,
- Iowa,
- Maine,
- Maryland,
- Massachusetts,
- New Hampshire,
- New York,
- Vermont, and
- Washington
Tell us what you think
Do you know of any same-sex military couples who have divorced and how it was handled? How do you think it should be handled? What happens if/when DOMA is struck down? Tell us your ideas concerning same-sex marriage military divorce benefits in the comments.
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Same-sex military married to military Questions
I have some thoughts on this issue since I lived right next to alot of embassy marine guards, consular officers and airline owned homes in Singapore (like in Hawaii) where private property is restricted to citizens or corporations (and incorporated foreign government entities such as the Office of Overseas Schools) who can afford them.
If you heard the jaws “fair spanish ladies song”, you are quite aware of some of the DADT provisions that go on in military areas where the male to female ratio is as high as 3 to 1. Guys and girls have affairs on the side while in same sex marriages and guys sometimes help each other out with their new blow up dolls or whatever fits the profile 😉
After watching Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Pensacola Wings of Gold, I had a huge crush on this Street FIghter “Guile” looking GI Joe who lived in my neighborhood and fished for drain water fish in the huge monsoon discharge tunnel in my neighborhood till he talked to me one day and told me to get out or i would be swept into the Ocean in the afternoon when it was supposed to rain and we became friends.
Anyways, during a job interview in law enforcement in Jacksonville FL in November of 2005, I met a guy that lived in the middle of no where who messaged me on my AOL instant messenger telling me he was in FL and I should drop by if I was visiting and it turned out that he might be someone who was at Ft Jackson, SC for Basic Training the same time I was and was also a deputy sheriff and we been seeing each other for five or six years while I was at The U of Florida and working in Jacksonville, FL. Initially, I met him because I was looking to rent a room and he lived like in the country two hours away from any civilization and not many people would understand his thick Floridian/Virginian accent and so he was quite the loner and we got horny and drunk and made out.
Anyway, he was a complete idiot and did not answer for two weeks after I moved into town when he claimed he went on a hunting trip and was also supposed to ride north with me to hunt large bucks when I went back to pack my stuff to move to Florida and we been having a relationship (three times a week sleep overs and my clothes are in his other bedroom for five years).
In 2010, I saw him in a gay bar in Gainesville and he was with other Gainesville PD gay officers and I was also in law enforcement but did not tell him for reasons I don’t know why. He just cooked (good eating venison and dumb ass actually doesnt know the antlers can be smuggled out of the US to Hong Kong and Korea and sold for like a grand or two grand a horn and lets the taxidermist keep the head), drank, watch TV and had sex and never really talked much or went out or did anything (except once we went to a dinner with a co-worker who was a female deputy he used to see).
Kid was supposed to take me to St. Augustine FL where he claimed to be from to meet his family year after year but never did so and we always worked the holidays for over time. Plus there is the national guard 1 month a year, one weekend every month thing that we had to go to for that USD 50,000 for college scam I got roped into hoping to buy a new mustang when I was 17.
So, he got his MBA and Bachelor of Business Administration with me doing a great deal of his homework and jetted for something better than law enforcement or military and is now a realtor or whatever he is caught up in. If same sex was in effect those years, he could have saved himself over a hundred grand on his MBA.
Anyways, he caused me to freak out and disappear socially from the gay scene when he never mentioned marriage or even proposed to me but told the entire gay bar and his Gainesville PD friends that I was his spouse and what we did behind close doors. Back then, gay marriage was not even in the courts or an issue and the last anyone heard of it was with the whole Vermont same sex union in 2000. Plus it was going to be the joke behind my back like for the next three or six months or longer the last time I got caught shaking a car with a female patrol officer from a different township and forgot to answer the radio dispatch till they echoed it county or state wide and the echo from the background…. when two cops are standing side to side and the volume of the radio is not lowered.
I freaked out as I like all things mechanical (cars, guns, etc) and have lived by military and police co-workers or scenarios all my life and i intend those as fall back careers if my business training fails me or i get bored with the BS and corporate shenanigans. I am not much of a sweet talker or beat around the bush and prefer to just answer Yes or No Sir and like having only one direct person to have to respond to and it drives me crazy having to wait around with co-workers hearing them talk about their miserable lives and their family/kids that I am lacking.
So, I wonder what kind of rights DADT and this whole same sex marriage comes to bear on the whole SBF or USFSPA legal issue. I have a lot of friends in the British Army and US marines who sleep with local chicks from high school all the time when they are 16 or 17 and knock them up at least once while they have a girl friend or wife back in the USA. Its not like they even know which rural route or state or city these guys are from or even the area code or zip code to their home in the US.
LOL, my buddy got busted printing a fake ID/passport from one embassy or high commission but not saving it to the system just to show this chick he was banging that he got pregnant and had to go to the clinic with her and was hoping to dodge child support until after the abortion when she read his dog tags and found out his real name… OPPS.. lol.. He supplied me with fine American cigarettes from the duty free and my Vivid Videos XXX supplier that is coded to the US region which I have to watch in his room (US VCR) every time he went home and they make a shit ton if they are embassy marine guards if you look at how much their travel and per diem amounts are and all them foreign asian chicks go crazy (thinking they are millionaires or Will Smith) for these guys with yards on their fenced in single family homes that four of these guys share that is owned by the embassy or wherever when it is mostly Base Access Housing.
I think one of them married a girl in Singapore from a high school that people knew and she was kind of from a well to do family and he did it so he could illegally sublet government subsidized project 3 bedroom high rise housing for USD 2800 per month that they could apply for and then I met his high school sweet heart and US wife from Topeka KS in 2004 and its all one huge family from the South where all the brothers have the same hair cut and are all the same JR or same family first middle and last names with SR OR JR OR I OR II OR III jokingly could go bang each other’s girl friends by swapping dog tags or whatever… they really did it in high school and got a broken nose.
So this guy from Florida that told me is from St Augustine, FL is actually from South Ohio by Wheeling WV and I am dying to go back to the Basic Training facility and see if his class photo is in my batch since I actually understood what or most of what he talks about and the dumb ass can drive take home departmental police vehicles anywhere in FL in plain clothes and goes buy a Honda Civic claiming it was to come see me in Gainesville FL. I was just like do what I do during lunch break and siphon the gas from the cop car into the Z71 but don’t… it is under grade gasoline (lower than 87 octane that voids your warranty and gets spark knocks and chokes up your fuel filter) that the state or county gets for free or the manufacturer gives them to trash test these work horse vehicles that does not meet quality control).
So what should I do? Apply for VA benefits and same sex recognition just to fuck with him for outing me to the whole Alachua area law enforcement? Crazy kid wanted to brand me with his initials with a smoldering cloth hanger wire. How come you lose any spousal or former spousal claims and death benefit if you re-marry? Does the catholic church even recognize the marriage? Isn’t that why all these gay marriages are performed in the court house where that Kentucky clerk stood against?
Some straight guys in the military were joking about it… for when you know, their wife is pregnant for the nine months and they need a warm pumpkin pie or something that is cheaper than a blow up doll since all these XXX bookstores and Asian massage places on I-478 in Georgia by the military areas/AFB are disappearing left right and center along with Toys R Us and all the porn sites now don’t feature women or college chicks with Ron Jeremy but all the same sex roommates having sex in pornhub with no financial benefit… its kind of crazy these days when back then there were warnings of a sneaky janitor making copies of a polaroid that the damn FBI sent to every police agency to post on every office wall.
Yeah.. think about it.. in all these AFB or place like Ft Bragg NC, the guy to girl ratio is 3 to 1. I doubt it cause most of my buddies would rip a guy apart with their bare hands if they were touched unwontedly…. but the things you see in night shift in law enforcement… pill parties in houses and in private yatchs their parents own and in car wash where a kid got his johnson into a car vac and man did it hurt…. Someone is having sex with the chicken. Maybe these bases are always out of hot water during morning shower time for that reason.
So let me know your thoughts. Any use filing for base benefits or VA benefits other than to use the gym with smoking pro gun hot guys who meet the height to weight ratio who have a six back v body and cheap meal plans and no HOA fees?
Last time it was fake beheading videos with no gushing blood with a diving knife and videos of looting vases.. now its british and us marines in the shower singer… good lord… and tanning in sand and teaching muslim dessert people how to be cops or soldiers and ESL… i thought there was a no camera policy in places like Westpoint and Ft Bragg
I mean, they spend no money in the base and all them car tags are free and some are great at defrauding the VA with caner at 35 and PTSD claims and heat exhaustion… you know for people who completed obstacle courses under life firing bullets and mortars in the background… plus they get paid as interns just like cop cadets do and have no 4 year college loans AND the big plus is they have to do their laundry and mine every three days since they only have three sets of uniforms
RE – your statement – “Complications begin to arise, one being that there is no tax form generated for the former spouse to report his/her receipt of the taxable military retirement pay.”
N.B. – The “tax form” WILL be generated by the military retiree claiming deductible ALIMONY payments to their former spouse by that former spouse’s name and SSAN ! It is then the former spouse’s responsibility to claim these ALIMONY payments as TAXABLE INCOME ! ! !
Update on Ashley Broadway: http://www.advocate.com/politics/military/2013/01/26/military-wife-has-focus-what-president-obama-will-do-next
After the present administration’s repealing of “DADT”, it would be totally hypocritical to NOT give same-sex marriages the same benefits to which opposite sex marriages are entitled. Eiter way, the first military same-sex marriage that fails will set case law for repealing the USFSPA !