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Editorial: This old wrong requires righting

 
Published Sept. 21, 2015

The federal government should move quickly to change the discharge status of veterans who were pushed out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Many of the affected former service members are elderly and left the military years before homosexuals were allowed to serve openly. Though the military's offense may be many decades old, the policy unfairly shamed veterans and prevented them from receiving the benefits they earned through their military service. This wrong, no matter how old, deserves to be rectified.

As many as 100,000 service members were put out of the military for being gay between World War II and the 2011 repeal of the military's "don't ask don't tell policy," according to the New York Times. Many were harassed by military investigators and pressured to make confessions about their sexual identity. They ultimately received less than honorable discharges, designations that cost them veterans' benefits, employment opportunities, and in many cases, led them to lead double lives for fear of persecution by society.

The Restore Honor to Service Members Act would give upgrades to nearly all veterans discharged for being gay. But its backers, who include six co-sponsors from Florida in the U.S. House, say it has little chance of passing, a pity in a year when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

Since 2011, the Obama administration has granted an upgrade to honorable discharge to any veteran who was kicked out for homosexuality as long as there were no other charges of misconduct. The vast majority of the 500 applications that have been received were upgraded, Department of Defense records show. But the application process can take years and can be cumbersome as veterans try to dig up decades-old records. Meanwhile, the applicants are aging and still being denied access to services, such as treatment at VA hospitals, that they rightly earned through their service.

The public's attitudes about homosexuality have undergone rapid transformation in recent years as people in same-gender relationships are more broadly accepted. At the federal level, the Obama administration has rightly moved to prohibit bias in the workplace, issuing an executive order in 2014 banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity by federal contractors. But the government needs to do more. Congress and Florida legislators should follow the lead of many local governments and pass laws banning discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation.

Although homosexuals may now serve openly in the military, it is unwise to forget those whose experiences paved the way for the rights gay service members now enjoy. It is the government's responsibility to provide honorable discharges to all who deserve them. The damage done to many veterans who were improperly discharged is incalculable. Upgrading their discharge status is the least the government can do to right such a considerable wrong.