Pentagon reaches historic settlement with LGBTQ veterans over discharge status
The Defense Department agreed to a class-action settlement that may affect more than 35,000 LGBTQ veterans who were discharged because of their sexual orientation under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and similar earlier policies.
The Defense Department agreed to a class-action settlement that may affect more than 35,000 LGBTQ veterans who were discharged because of their sexual orientation under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and similar earlier policies.
The agreement will allow veterans who received a less than honorable discharge because of their sexual orientation to be eligible for an immediate review and an upgrade to an honorable discharge. Veterans who received an honorable discharge but whose military discharge form, known as a DD-214, states that they separated from the military because of sexual orientation will now be able to have that characterization removed from the form in a matter of months.
The settlement could have significant effects for the more than 35,000 veterans that the Defense Department estimates were discharged between 1980 and 2011 “because of real or perceived homosexuality, homosexual conduct, sexual perversion, or any other related reason,” according to court documents.
Having a less than honorable discharge from the military disqualifies veterans from critical benefits such as access to medical care through the Veterans Health Administration and a pension. Those who were honorably discharged but whose DD-214 states they separated from the military because of homosexuality are outed whenever they present their discharge form for benefits or during background checks for employment, according to Lori Rifkin, the litigation director for Impact Fund, a legal nonprofit that represented LGBTQ veterans in the lawsuit.
“This is not about determining what the policy should be — Congress already determined, more than a decade ago, that people were discriminated against and they shouldn’t have been,” Rifkin said of the settlement. “This is about recognizing that all of that discrimination by the government has had lasting impacts on tens of thousands of people for years and about finally getting that wrong corrected and finally giving people the honor and recognition they deserve.”
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