Pentagon attempts to fix the mess of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
The ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy that President Clinton imposed on United States military service members was put in place in 1994, and then repealed in 2011. Now the Pentagon is attempting to fix some of the injustices enacted upon LGBTQ service members during that time.
The policy stipulated that LGBTQ citizens could serve in the United States military as long as they kept their sexuality a secret. Unsurprisingly, during this period of time, because of this discriminatory policy, many LGBTQ members of the military experienced widespread discrimination, were forced out of the military in a variety of ways, and subsequently denied benefits for years to come.
In an attempt to correct the wrongs done by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ the US Defense Department has launched a program to proactively review the records of dismissed veterans at that time, while also launching a website that will offer resources to LGBTQ community members who served in the military.
The plan involves actively seeking to identify veterans who were less than honorably discharged between 1994 and 2011.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “Over the past decade, we’ve tried to make it easier for service members discharged based on their sexual orientation to obtain corrective relief… while this process can be difficult to navigate, we are working to make it more accessible and efficient.”
According to the Defense Department, approximately 2000 individuals were less than honorably discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. This means that these individuals were denied access to benefits such as home loans, healthcare, GI Bill tuition, and access to government jobs
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks says “We know correcting these records cannot fully restore the dignity taken from LGBTQ+ service members when they were expelled from the military… It doesn’t completely heal the unseen wounds that were left, it doesn’t make people whole again, even for those many who received honorable discharges. But this is yet another step we’re taking to make sure we do right by those who served honorably.”
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