A victory for hundreds of gay veterans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Tuesday that the Defense Department will make changes to the discharge process for approximately 820 veterans who were discharged from the military solely because of their sexual orientation.
A measure which will allow their records to be erased and allow them to access benefits reserved for veterans, such as health care, which they could not benefit from until now. “We will continue to honor the service and sacrifice of all our Soldiers, including the brave Americans who raised their hands to serve but were turned away because of those they love,” Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The purpose of this announcement is to “repair the harm caused by the policy” known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, a discriminatory policy that imposed silence on homosexual and bisexual people in force in the ranks of the US military between 1994 and 2011. While homosexual and bisexual people were prohibited from serving in the US military ranks until 1994, Bill Clinton decided to change this policy in 1993 to allow LGBT soldiers to serve in the armed forces, provided they do not disclose their sexual orientation.
“Righting a historic wrong”
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, nearly 13,500 gay, lesbian or bisexual service members have been forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation and have been unable to receive educational, health or of finance allocated to veterans.
An announcement that comes a year after the Pentagon’s decision to examine the files of military personnel who were separated during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” period. A decision which was welcomed by human rights defenders after several years of demands for the Pentagon to reverse this policy which disrupted the lives of gay and lesbian soldiers.
“We encourage all veterans who believe they have suffered an error or injustice to request a correction of their military record,” the Pentagon wrote in its press release.
Last June, when he was still campaigning for the American presidential election, Joe Biden announced that he wanted to “right a historic wrong”, by opening the possibility of a pardon for former soldiers convicted on the basis of a section of the military justice code, which has suppressed homosexuality in the US military for decades.