I doubt there's anything in the law that defines what kind of family can attend a National Guard event. This is absurd. And the kind of petty thing we should no longer be having to deal with. From SeaCoastOnline.com:
In a Tuesday letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged the Department of Defense "in the strongest terms to end a discriminatory policy that bans the same-sex spouses of returning National Guard members from participating in official National Guard family events."
Shaheen's letter followed a story in Monday's Herald about Rye resident Charlie Morgan, who is the only member of the N.H. National Guard who recently returned from a foreign deployment but is barred from bringing a spouse to a military-mandated "yellow ribbon reintegration" program this weekend. While the National Guard states returning soldiers' "family members are strongly encouraged to attend" the two-day event, Morgan is the exception because she's a lesbian.
Shaheen said she attempted to assist Morgan, but has been "hamstrung by federal regulations." On Tuesday, the senator wrote to Panetta, asking him "to get personally involved."
