The military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is no more—but the Department of Justice argued in court this week that servicemembers who had been dismissed under the policy should receive only half of normal severance pay, as per the regulations that existed at the time of their dismissal.- The audience at the Republican presidential debate Thursday night booed when an active-duty soldier serving in Iraq asked if the candidates would reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum was asked to answer, and replied that he would.
- Gautam Raghavan, the deputy White House liaison at the Department of Defense, will become the LGBT liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE), taking over from Brian Bond, reports Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly.
- President Barack Obama will reprise his role as keynote speaker at HRC’s Annual National Dinner on October 1, Washington, D.C. He also spoke at the dinner in 2009.
- A Superior Court judge in Alaska ruled that same-sex couples in the state are entitled to the same senior citizen and disabled veteran property tax exemptions as opposite-sex married couples.
Around the world:
- Official statistics from the U.K. show that after five years, more than twice the number of opposite-sex marriages ended in divorce than did same-sex civil partnerships.