this country. joining us also, chad, safe travels to you as you go back to california for that celebration. and to the recommitment of the next steps forward. thank you very much. joining me now is rachel maddoux who is experiencing all of the emotions today. rachel, i was thinking about a couple i was talking with on a google hangout, a marine who is heading to okinawa, new deployment after being at the war college here, and his husband cannot live on base. how quickly do we think the federal regs can be changed, veterans benefits and the ability especially with the end of don t ask don t tell for them to live together in okinawa? right now it is 1:10 eastern time. i do believe chuck hagel is due to speak to these issues at roughly 2:15 eastern time. he will be speaking on these matters.
step forward for couples who really have had second class citizenship with their states recognizing their marriages in some cases but not the federal government. and with us as well is fred sayers from the human rights campaign. fred, i know chad was talking about the fact that the fight goes on, but there is some very practical steps that do have to be made. i know you re following up with all of the agencies of the federal government. let me go a little bit further on what rachel said. she s absolutely right. it s greatly eye ron make it a ironic will now become the best kudal that we have for marriage equality nationwide. legally married same-sex couples that live in marriage equality states will be afforded virtually immediately all the same benefits as their straight
going to be over soon. rachel, this footnote to what you were saying earlier. we have a message from secretary hagel saying the department of defense plans to make the benefits available to all military spouses as soon as possible. s that is now the law. the military will not hesitate on this. they are happy with how that has gone. they will not have a problem with this. they will lead and it will pressure the states in which there are bases where people are being treated equally but outside the base lines know will not be treated equally. it will pressure those states. rachel maddow, the great pete carroll and here with me now is peter alexander. a lot more to discuss as i m going to hand off for you. for the remainder of the show i am heading to an airplane. we are going to the aspen ideas festiv festival. stay with us for more on this