Oklahoma’s republican Governor Mary Fallin, has ordered the local National Guard to stop processing requests for military benefits for same-sex couples, despite a Pentagon directive to do so.

The Pentagon announced last month that same-sex spouses of military members will be eligible for the same health care, housing and other benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex spouses starting Sept. 3. As the U.S. Department of Defense began allowing same-sex couples to apply for identification cards and benefits, National Guard officials in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana announced that they would refuse to process the applications citing their states’ gay-marriage bans. All three states are led by socially conservative Republican governors.

According to the AP:



Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said the governor was following the wish of Oklahoma voters, who approved a constitutional amendment in 2004 that prohibits giving benefits of marriage to gay couples. “Because of that prohibition, Gov. Fallin’s general counsel has advised the National Guard not to process requests for benefits of same-sex couples,” Weintz said. “Gay couples that have been legally married in other states will be advised they can apply for those benefits on federal facilities, such as Tinker Air Force Base, rather than state run facilities.” Fallin ordered the policy change on Sept. 5, Weintz said. The policy is a shift from how the Guard had been handling requests for benefits from same-sex partners in the ranks of the roughly 9,500 guard soldiers and airmen in Oklahoma, said Oklahoma National Guard spokesman Col. Max Moss. Moss said the agency had been processing benefits for same-sex soldiers just like those from heterosexual couples until Fallin’s office ordered the change in policy. He said state officials already had helped process benefit requests for two gay soldiers before Fallin’s directive.



“If we have a situation where we have a soldier who’s in a same-sex marriage, we’re going to explain to that soldier how they can go about acquiring those benefits,” Moss said. “At this point, that’s directing them to a federal facility.We want our soldiers to have all the benefits to which they’re entitled to.”