Out Serve Service Members Legal Defense Network (OutServe-SLDN) & the American Military Partner Association (AMPA) jointly filed a friend of the court brief (Amicus Brief) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday. This is in support of the cases of Kitchen v. Herbert that was decided by a federal district court in Utah & Bishop v. Smith that was decided by a federal district court in Oklahoma, arguing that the uneven patchwork of states providing marriage equality harms military families, undermines national security, complicates the payment of earned veterans benefits & harms veterans. The brief filed by the law firm of Chadbourne & Parke urges the Court to end the discrimination caused by the lack of marriage equality by recognizing a constitutional right for people of the same gender to marry with the same terms as opposite sex couples. Jeffrey Mueller, Co-Chairman of the Board for OutServe-SLDN stated, "Our families are no different than any other families in the Department of Defense & Veteran Affairs & they deserve to be treated the same. The extra burden of marriage inequality is affecting military readiness & ultimately affects our national defense. Moving with the military is hard enough, but the added stress of moving to a state that will not recognize your marriage impacts their ability to do their job & just isn't right. All military families should be treated the same no matter where they serve our great country."
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