Panetta announces benefits for military same-sex partners

By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Originally published February 11, 2013


Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Monday that the Pentagon is extending benefits to same-sex partners of military servicemembers, including the right to visit their loved ones in military hospitals.

The announcement falls short of an extension of full benefits, many of them involving health care, because federal law prevents same-sex couples from receiving them. Among the other benefits to be extended: participation in family groups on military bases, issuing dependent identification cards and privileges in commissaries.

"It is a matter of fundamental equity that we provide similar benefits to all of those men and women in uniform who serve their country," Panetta said in a statement.

The entire story is here.

Same-sex couples raising children on the rise

By Elaine Quijano
CBS Evening News
Originally published June 16, 2012

On this Father's Day Eve, we take notice of a sea change. The Census Bureau estimates that the percentage of same-sex couples raising children has more than doubled in just 10 years, from 8 percent in 2000, to 19 percent in 2010. We visit one of the couples behind the numbers.

As a same-sex couple, Sean McGill and Luigi Caiola say they never contemplated fatherhood.

"We never imagined or never thought that children would be an option for us," said McGill.

But after almost 10 years together, they were drawn to the idea of parenting.

The entire story is here.