The lawsuit, filed by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, revolves around the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The act was created by Congress in 1996 to protect one state from having to abide by another state's marriage laws. It also requires the Pentagon to ignore same-sex marriage, which is legal in six states and Washington, D.C.

Some of the benefits the lawsuit lists as unequal are medical and dental benefits, housing allowances, travel and transportation allowances, survivor benefits and the right to be buried together in military cemeteries, which is denied to partners of homosexual service members. Aubrey Sarvis, the director of SLDN said many gay service members worry about their loved ones back home who don't have equal health benefits, which can be a distraction from their military responsibilities.

A spokeswoman for the group opposing the lawsuit, the Center for Military Readiness, said the lawsuit is an attempt to impose throughout the military a definition of marriage that's accepted in just a handful of states. Captain John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, also noted that currently all service members can designate some benefits to anyone they choose regardless of sexual orientation.

Dolores Zambrano said she has friends in the military who consider themselves in a domestic partnership.

"It's a shame to know that only one of them has benefits and the other doesn't," said Zambrano, who hopes the lawsuit will find a way to compromise. "Perhaps there can be something in the middle where a partnership can be something they can look into instead of a marriage."