Quote:Also, ask any military spouse, especially the wives, if they like to be called 'dependents' instead of spouses. I know when I was one I hated being called a dependent. I was a military spouse. So what you label someone or call someone, even on paper, matters. I am not some gender neutral spouse.  I am a woman and a wife and that's what I prefer to be called. Even if it is just on a piece of paper. 

 

Sometimes a military spouse is not a wife; it's a husband.   So why should the law refer to "husband" or "wife" when under the law there is no difference?     This is the whole point of writing the laws in a gender-neutral way.   If the law refers to the "wife" what if the person is a husband and not a wife?  What then?   Is he out of luck because the law doesn't refer to husbands, only wives?  Why not call both husbands and wives "spouse?" 

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