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Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Extends to all U.S. Military Bases

The Supreme Court's legalization of same-sex marriage paves the way for ceremonies on all U.S. military bases.

'Love Is Love,' Obama Says After High Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

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By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube

The Supreme Court's legalizing of same-sex marriages not only paves the way for such unions in all 50 states, but also on all U.S. military bases.

Until Friday's ruling, the military permitted same-sex wedding ceremonies only on bases in states that allowed them. The high court's decision permits the ceremonies in military chapels across the country.

Image: Todd Saunders and U.S. Army Captain Michael Potoczniak take oath
Todd Saunders and U.S. Army Captain Michael Potoczniak, partners of ten years, take their marriage oath at City Hall in San Francisco in 2013.Stephen Lam / REUTERS

Any military chaplain or clergy can refuse to perform a same sex marriage “if it is not in line with the tenets of their faith.” But same-sex couples are free to pick their own clergy member to perform their ceremony.

Same-sex marriage ceremonies have been taking place in military chapels since September 2013, when the Pentagon ruled that same sex partners of a service member were entitled to the same benefits provided to opposite sex couples, such as health care, access to military facilities and services on all military bases.

The decision came two years after the Pentagon lifted the "don't ask, don't tell" prohibition against openly gay men or women serving in the military.

Jim Miklaszewski

Jim Miklaszewski is the chief Pentagon correspondent for NBC News. On 9/11, he was the first at the scene to report that the Pentagon had been attacked and has since led the network's coverage of the war in Afghanistan.

Since joining NBC in 1985, Miklaszewski was a White House correspondent during the Clinton and Bush administrations, covering President Clinton's transition from Little Rock, his many trips abroad including Moscow and the Middle East and his reelection. He was also an NBC floor reporter at the Democratic and Republican conventions in 1996 and 2000.

In the Bush White House, Miklaszewski reported on the Gulf War with Iraq, summits with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin and the Bush reelection campaign in 1992.

Miklaszewski has logged considerable foreign experience with battlefront coverage of wars in Lebanon, El Salvador and the Falkland Islands. He also covered the United States air raid on Libya, and the "tanker wars" in the Persian Gulf.

Courtney Kube

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Jon Schuppe contributed.