Advocates are celebrating the Department of Defense’s decision to correct the military records of many veterans who were discharged over their sexual orientation in the past – while adding that the agency must do more for affected veterans.
The Pentagon has announced it will review cases of LGBTQ+ veterans who were denied honorable discharges after being removed from the military under the 1990s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). Thousands of veterans were removed from service following the controversial 1993 law introduced by then president Bill Clinton as a compromise step which allowed gay and lesbian military personnel to serve only if their sexuality remained secret or was not reported.
Many of those dismissed were then ineligible for veteran benefits due to their discharge status. Even those removed with an honorable discharge status faced discrimination as paperwork listed their sexual orientation.
Pentagon officials say they will be taking a more “proactive” approach to amend veteran records, rather than veterans having to appeal their discharge status themselves.
“What the Pentagon is offering to do is a great thing,” said Danny Ingram, public affairs officer with American Veterans for Equal Rights, who was also among the first veterans to be discharged under DADT.
But Ingram and others said the initiative is a limited one.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to feel like enough,” said Anabel Reyes, a navy veteran dismissed under DADT.
Approximately 13,000 veterans were discharged under DADT before the law ended in 2011, a policy that not only wrecked careers but very often did so with a humiliating removal process.
Reyes, now based in Massachusetts, was dismissed after nearly two years of service.
Military officers opened a formal investigation into Reyes’ sexual orientation after a rumor circulated that a woman was sleeping in her bunk with her. Even though the rumor was false, Reyes said, she felt “coerced” to come out after military officials threatened to punish her more severely if she was lying about her sexuality.
“That was definitely something I was forced to confess to under duress,” Reyes said.
When Reyes confirmed that she was gay, she was demoted and prohibited from socializing or making purchases from commissary.
Ultimately, she was removed from the military with an under-honorable discharge and “homosexual conduct” listed as the dismissal justification.
This prevented her from accessing any veterans’ benefits, including unemployment, a fact she did not know until she returned home.
Having her sexual orientation listed on her discharge paperwork also caused future employers to discriminate against her, she said.
“They won’t call you back because they’ll see ‘homosexual conduct’ on the [paperwork],” said Reyes. “[It’s] outing you repeatedly.”
Reyes said her mental health suffered massively.
“When I joined up, my intention was to stay for as long as I could. I didn’t have a backup plan. They really kept me down for at least a decade,” she said.
Veterans were routinely dismissed because of their sexuality prior to DADT, with an estimated 114,000 LGBTQ+ veterans discharged in total just since the second world war.
Steve Egland, a 63-year-old veteran based in Detroit, was denied a housing loan, hospital treatment and other benefits after being discharged in 1989 because of his sexual orientation. He had been outed by another serviceman while serving overseas.
Egland was forced to undergo a lie detector test during a formal investigation. He was dismissed after telling investigators that he had visited a gay bar during his free time and kissed a man.
He said: “I kissed a man and so you’re going to just lower the boom on me? It [was] a very shocking and frightening experience. All the while you’re thinking, ‘Am I a bad person? Am I some kind of a monster?’”
Egland quickly learned upon his return that he was ineligible for several benefits because he had only served 18 months before his dismissal – a realization he described as “devastating”.
Reyes and Egland have appealed their statuses with the Department of Defense. Both veterans ultimately had to take legal assistance after their initial appeals were denied.
Experts agree that the appeal process is complex, re-traumatizing and time-consuming.
“It is a slow, cumbersome process, and you rarely win unless you’re willing to hire an attorney,” said Ingram.
Attorney Jocelyn Larkin, who is overseeing a class-action lawsuit to have the records of LGBTQ+ veterans corrected, called the appeal process “difficult”.
Although the Pentagon’s latest initiative takes on the burden of the appeal process, Larkin said the review only affects veterans who were not honorably discharged under DADT, about 5%-10% of all veterans who have been discharged because of their orientation.
Ingram added that the outcome of the Pentagon’s initiative depends on how many resources are allocated to it. The next president could also pause the process, said Ingram, similar to when Donald Trump banned transgender people from the military via executive order in 2018.
“They could even stop the whole program,” Ingram said, adding that Congress needs to codify protections for LGBTQ+ military personnel.
Egland added that the Pentagon’s announcement was a good first step, but needed to cover more affected veterans.
“The mission is to make sure that anyone who was discharged for this reason can get their situation rectified,” said Egland. “If you served honorably, then that’s what it should be.”
For Reyes, the corrections only do so much.
“Just fixing a piece of paper is not going to account for all the damage that’s been done,” said Reyes. “I don’t think that anything that they do is gonna make up for the fact that they destroyed so many careers.”
This article was amended on 26 September 2023 to correct the spelling of Steve Egland’s name.
