members are going to be allowed to serve. and specifically, how their family members are or are not going to be recognized by a defense department that recognizes the family members of straight service members. if the defense of marriage act fails at the supreme court, for example, yeah, that's going to affect whether there are same-sex marriage rights in various states all around the country, right? but one of the very first things it's going to affect is day to day life for members of the military there is a whole list of very specific things that other family members get in the military that family members of gay service members right now are banned from getting specifically because of the defense of marriage act. so if the supreme court strikes down the defense of marriage act that is banning these policies, it may very well be chuck hagel deciding the very sensitive issue of whether a gay service member's family gets this kind of equal treatment that he or she would never have had before. so chuck hagel's position on gay rights, which on the service would seem totally irrelevant to a job running the military, actually could not be more