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Governor Evaluates Options Over Same Sex Guard Couples

Oklahoma National Guard

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A spokesman for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin says Fallin and Attorney General Scott Pruitt are evaluating legal options regarding benefits for same sex couples in the National Guard after U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel issued a warning to states that have denied those benefits.

Hagel has said nine states are violating federal law and creating an unequal "hardship" for same sex couples.

Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said in a statement Friday that Fallin said President Barack Obama and Hagel should stop using the Guard "as a pawn in a larger social agenda."

Weintz said Oklahoma voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman and prohibiting benefits to people who are not married. He says Fallin is sworn to uphold the state Constitution.