WASHINGTON — Although the military's ban on out lesbian, gay and bisexual service ended without much fuss in 2011, the secondary issues of running a military that treats those service members and their partners equally has proven a more difficult task.

From states and countries that bar recognition of same-sex couples' marriages to military chaplains whose beliefs, they say, prevent them from including same-sex couples in couples' retreats, to treatment of LGB cadets at a military academy, the recent talk about "gays in the military" has focused more on the few problem areas that have arisen.

Particularly since June's Supreme Court decision ending the ban on the federal government recognizing married same-sex couples, the Pentagon is finding pockets of difficulty in advancing its new policy — enunciated by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in an August memo — that "[i]t is now the Department's policy to treat all married military personnel equally."

Several states — including Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — remain unwilling to process military ID cards for same-sex spouses of National Guard members at state facilities, citing state constitutional bans on recognizing same-sex couples' marriages. This comes even after Hagel said at the end of October that all states "will be expected" to treat all married service members equally.

Although Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has gotten the most attention for announcing that it will no longer process ID cards for any spouses — same-sex or opposite-sex — it is those states continuing to treat same-sex spouses differently after a Dec. 1 deadline for compliance that will be most likely to face a response from the Pentagon.

What that will be, though, is not yet clear. A defense official told BuzzFeed on Friday that Hagel had directed the head of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Frank Grass, "to resolve this issue" with the state heads of the National Guard units. "We're not going to speculate on further options at this time. These are federal ID cards paid for with federal funding to provide federally-mandated benefits," the official stated. "These states' refusal to comply with federal policy not only hurts members of the National Guard but also active and reserve military members and retirees that are seeking an ID card for their same-sex spouse at National Guard facilities."

In California, another problem was highlighted this past week: the treatment of same-sex couples by chaplains, many of whom are Southern Baptist or Roman Catholic and are barred by their faith leaders from counseling to same-sex couples.

The American Military Partner Association announced on Nov. 20 that a married same-sex couple were denied participation in an Army marriage enrichment "Strong Bonds" program run by the chaplains at Fort Irwin in San Bernardino County. Although the military later stated that it would make "alternative arrangements" to provide the services to the couple, Shakera Leigh Halford, the wife of the service member, said, "Why can't we just be another couple at the retreat, like everyone else? Why do we have to have special arrangements?"

Most of the attention this past week, however, was focused on Colorado Springs, Colo., where the Air Force Academy is located. Questions about the academy's environment for lesbian, gay and bisexual cadets — including its employment of a person with a long history of involvement in anti-LGBT organizations — reached such a level that the academy held a conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon to address the issues.

The questions began on Nov. 19, when AmericaBlog's John Aravosis reported that Dr. Mike Rosebush — who has a long history of involvement with "ex-gay" counseling aiming to help people in "coming out of homosexuality" and involvement with Focus on the Family, NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) and Exodus International — oversaw "character and leadership coaching" at the academy.

The academy's public affairs office said Aravosis overstated Rosebush's role, stating that he is "Operations Research Analyst for the Academy's Center of Character and Leadership Development," that he took on that role in 2011 and was hired in 2009 as an analyst in the "Academy's Plans and Programs office." Even that, though, was not a junior-level office; its full name is the "Directorate of Strategic Plans and Programs, Requirements, Assessments and Analyses" and its purpose is to "support[] commanders by developing institutional policy, plans and assessment strategies to enhance mission success."