Democrats revive effort to investigate military policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people

Democrats marked the 12th anniversary of the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy Wednesday by relaunching an effort to investigate the lasting impacts of military policies that discriminated against LGBTQ service members and veterans.

The proposal, introduced by Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), would create a 15-person commission to study former Department of Defense actions “policing sexual orientation and gender identity in the uniformed services, from the beginning of World War II and onward.”

The commission’s responsibilities would include investigating the lasting psychological, financial and professional impacts of policies including “don’t ask, don’t tell” that prevented LGBTQ people from serving openly in the military and recommending “appropriate ways” to educate the public about “institutionalized and government-sanctioned discrimination.”

The group would be required to issue a report detailing its findings to Congress within one year of its first meeting, including how discharge updates and amendments to military records can be streamlined and how the federal government “may offer an apology” to LGBTQ veterans and their families.

Thousands of LGBTQ veterans under “don’t ask, don’t tell” were removed from the military “under other than honorable conditions” rather than with an honorable discharge. While the policy has been inactive for more than a decade, the military records of LGBTQ veterans discharged because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation have largely remained unchanged, depriving them of key benefits.

The Pentagon launched a new effort Wednesday to contact former service members discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” to correct their records. A class action lawsuit filed last month on behalf of five LGBTQ veterans alleges the federal government has allowed “discrimination to live on in the discharge papers carried by LGBTQ+ veterans” and “has taken no steps to correct this discrimination systematically.”

The legislation proposed Wednesday aims to “forge a more welcoming future in the military and at VA,” Takano, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a statement.

“For decades, Americans made impossible choices of hiding their identity in order to serve our country,” he said. “We are reintroducing this legislation on the anniversary of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ – a reminder that the wounds of our nation’s history of discrimination against LGBTQ people are still fresh and require remedy.”

The bill has 10 co-sponsors in the House, with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Wash.) co-sponsoring in the Senate. The measure has been endorsed by military and LGBTQ rights groups including the American Legion, Equality California and the Human Rights Campaign.

“Our country has never made amends for official discriminatory policies like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and the transgender military ban – and that failure still haunts today’s service members and veterans,” said Jacobs, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and vice chair of the Equality Caucus.

Transgender individuals were prevented from serving openly in the military “in any capacity” under a policy adopted by the Trump administration in 2017. President Biden signed an executive order repealing the ban in 2021 and calling for the immediate correction of military records for individuals affected by Trump’s ban.