Oct. 15 (UPI) — More than 800 U.S. military veterans kicked out of the service because of their sexual orientation under the former policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will received their long-awaited honorable discharges years after its repeal, the U.S. government said Tuesday.
And a former Obama administration official tells UPI he’s “thrilled” with the current administration’s effort to right these historical wrongs, saying that it has been a longtime goal since the discriminatory policy was lifted in 2011 with a congressional effort.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that since the repeal of that policy on gay people serving in the U.S. military, thousands of cases given to the Defense Department by people denied a rightful conclusion to their military service had been addressed.
“America’s greatest national-security asset is the brave and qualified patriots who step up to form our all-volunteer force,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday in a Defense Department news release.
The department said that, of the nearly 13,500 individuals who had been “administratively separated” under the now-repealed policy but who served long enough to receive a “merit-based characterization” of their military service, roughly 96% of them will now receive an honorable discharge they were denied years prior under the policy.
Former President Bill Clinton, a Democat, on July 19, 1993, announced the U.S. government’s “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” policy toward members of the LGBTQ community serving in the U.S. military.
A 2004 UPI report indicated, despite the fact that U.S. military forces were in short supply at the time, the government had discharged more than 9,682 military personnel by that point since the policy’s 1993 effective date.
Ultimately, the discriminatory policy was lifted in 2011 in a congressional effort lead by then-Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat.
This particular review, Austin said, centered on those who may have been eligible for military updates and promotions but had been denied the opportunity because of the policy.
“Brave LGBTQ+ Americans have long volunteered to serve the country that they love,” Austin, 71, said Tuesday.
According to the department, after a year of “exceptional work”, DOD’s Military Department Review Boards directed final relief in a little more than 96% of the 851 cases given to the U.S. government for a “proactive review” of their situation.
On Tuesday, Murphy, later the 32nd U.S. Army under secretary under former President Barack Obama who served briefly as acting Army secretary, told UPI this “fulfills the vision we had when we came together to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.'”
Austin, a little more than a year ago, had announced that DOD would, for the first time, begin a “proactive” review of the military records of former U.S. service members who had been discharged from the military as a result of the policy and due to their sexual orientation.
The Biden administration has “taken extraordinary steps to redress the harms” done by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and “other policies on these former service members,” Austin explained about U.S. troops who had been administratively separated from military service under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
On a 2010 visit to South Korea, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to a group of U.S. military personnel stationed in Seoul, had urged them to complete a survey sent to 400,000 active and reserve service members as part of a DOD review of the policy.
Murphy, now 50, praised Austin, saying he was “thrilled” that President Joe Biden’s defense secretary has made “this long-overdue correction to the thousands of veterans who served their country honorably.”
And, he added, they were “only discharged because of who they loved.”
