We’re used to hearing claims by right-wing activists that gay rights supporters are “heterophobic.” Former chaplain and gay-exorcist Gordon Klingenschmitt argued along those lines in an interview today, where he maintained that same-sex partner benefits represent “discrimination against heterosexuals.”
While speaking with OneNewsNow, an affiliate of the American Family Association, Klingenschmitt criticized Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s decision to offer some — but not all — military benefits to same-sex spouses. Klingenschmitt said such a move will give gay service members “bonus pay and more benefits when all the rest of our troops are getting less benefits, less armor, less weapons and less ability to fight wars.”
Sources say Panetta has not made a final decision on which benefits will be included, but the Pentagon is likely to allow same-sex partners to have access to the on-base commissary and other military subsidized stores, as well as health and welfare programs.
The military is likely to require that some type of document be signed to designate the military member's partner as a legitimate recipient of the benefits. But Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former Navy chaplain who now runs The Pray In Jesus Name Project, tells OneNewsNow that "this is not equality."
"This is now discrimination against heterosexuals, because when I was dating my girlfriend -- even when she was engaged to be married to me -- she was not allowed to enter the commissary or even get on the military base until we were legally married," he recalls.
And Klingenschmitt says this move is especially outrageous in light of the Defense Department budget cuts that are coming.
"When [Panetta] talks about sequester and cutting the Pentagon budget by 22 percent, apparently those cuts don't apply to homosexuals, because they're getting bonus pay and more benefits when all the rest of our troops are getting less benefits, less armor, less weapons and less ability to fight wars," the chaplain reasons.
He concludes that all this has come about because the people of the United States elected -- and then re-elected -- Barack Obama as president.
