U.S. Military: Last News

Frank Kameny leads a picket line in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1965, four years before the Stonewall uprising in New York City. Kameny, who served in World War II and later as a civil service astronomer with the U.S. Army’s Map Service, was fired and banned from federal employment in 1957 because he was gay. Photo: New York Public Library.

allow former service members convicted under Article 125 to request and receive proof that their conviction has been erased, petition to have their “other than honorable” discharges upgraded, and seek to recover lost pay or benefits.“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said in a statement released on Wednesday, June 25. “Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.“We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members — including our brave LGBTQI+ service members: to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home.

An overlooked Pentagon report issued last year by the Joint Chiefs of Staff has debunked decades-old claims that integrating out LGBTQ soldiers into the ranks of the U.S. Armed Forces would harm military readiness and unit cohesion.The 2021 report, issued 10 years after the repeal of the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy prohibiting lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from acknowledging their sexual orientation, examined the military’s response to out LGB service members during the period following repeal.

Cmdr. Merle Smith was a U.S.