Potentially thousands of veterans are affected, but many questions remain about the policy that the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs must work through.
President Joe Biden announced on June 26, 2024, that military personnel convicted under a now-defunct policy criminalizing consensual gay sex would receive full pardons. This decision could potentially restore their military discharges to honorable status, making them eligible for benefits such as home loans, educational assistance, and medical care. The Pentagon has launched a new webpage to guide service members through the pardon application process.
This policy shift impacts potentially thousands of veterans, but there remain many unanswered questions, particularly about how the Department of Veterans Affairs will handle the resulting benefits. Prior bad discharges under Article 125, which criminalized sodomy between consenting adults, have led to significant hardships for affected veterans.
Article 125 had been part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) since 1951 and resulted in the discharge of approximately 2,000 military service members, according to advocacy group Modern Military Association of America. These veterans were often penalized due to their sexual orientation. Though Congress removed the provision in 2013, veterans discharged under Article 125 prior to that are still facing the long-term consequences of having a conviction on their records.
For veterans seeking a pardon, the Pentagon’s newly launched portal provides instructions and links to apply. However, not everyone will be eligible for a pardon, especially those whose actions involved adulterous relationships or situations where consent might have been in question due to a power imbalance, such as between recruiters and recruits.
The issue of how the federal government will compensate for the years of lost benefits or set the parameters for future compensation remains unresolved. Nonetheless, Biden’s move represents a step toward addressing the injustices faced by LGBTQ service members who were penalized under outdated and discriminatory laws.