{"id":147596,"date":"2023-09-23T10:56:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T14:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=147596"},"modified":"2023-09-23T10:56:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T14:56:22","slug":"veterans-denied-honorable-discharges-due-to-dont-ask-dont-tell-to-have-their-case-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=147596","title":{"rendered":"Veterans denied honorable discharges, due to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ to have their case reviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prior to the appeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans were discharged with “under other than honorable conditions.” Supporters for these new reviews argue that many of these veterans put themselves in harm’s way and have done their duties as others have done. However, had it not been for the nature of their discharge, receiving an honorable discharge instead despite their sexual orientation, they would have access to benefits and services.<\/p>\n

From CBS News:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

To help ease that burden, the Defense Department plans to conduct a review of veterans’ records who served under “don’t ask, don’t tell” for a possible recommendation of a discharge upgrade. This means that these veterans would not have to apply for the upgrade themselves, a process that both veterans and experts have said is often unsuccessful without the help of a lawyer. The department is also launching a website Wednesday with resources dedicated to LGBTQ+ veterans who believe they were wrongfully discharged for their sexuality.<\/p>\n

Once the military completes its initial review of veterans’ records who served during “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a senior Pentagon official told CBS News it plans to begin looking at the records of veterans who served before that policy — by many accounts, a time of even greater discrimination against gay and lesbian service members.<\/p>\n

“Over the past decade, we’ve tried to make it easier for Service members discharged based on their sexual orientation to obtain corrective relief,” Austin also said in his statement. “While this process can be difficult to navigate, we are working to make it more accessible and efficient.”<\/p>\n

And he said that in the coming weeks, the military will start outreach campaigns to encourage service members and veterans who believe they suffered an injustice because of “don’t ask, don’t tell” to try to get their military records corrected.<\/p>\n

While the full scope of past discrimination remains unknown due to the opaque nature of military records and the widespread use of cover charges to drum out gay and lesbian troops, figures obtained via Freedom of Information Act and shared with CBS News earlier this year revealed that more than 35,000 service members from 1980 to 2011 “received a discharge or separation because of real or perceived homosexuality, homosexual conduct, sexual perversion, or any other related reason.” According to the most recent data available from the Pentagon, just 1,375 veterans have been granted relief in the form of a discharge upgrade or correction to their record.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CBS News provides additional information here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prior to the appeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans were discharged with … Veterans denied honorable discharges, due to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ to have their case reviewed<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-issues","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}