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Following the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell in 2010, a group of LGBTQ+ veterans who were discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Tuesday against the Defense Department for failing to give them honorable discharges or remove discriminatory language mentioning their sexuality from their service records.
Five veterans have filed a class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the Pentagon’s inability to stop this continued discrimination violates their constitutional rights.
LGBTQ+ veterans’ constitutional rights to equal protection, informational privacy, property, and due process are all protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.
Requiring them to first endure the stigma and discriminatory effects of having indicators of sexual orientation on their [discharge papers] before navigating a broken record correction process to seek resolution is unconstitutional.
Since the military ended its long-standing prohibition on homosexual and lesbian service members, more than ten years have passed.
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Veterans’ Lives Affected by Service Discharge
But thousands of people who received less-than-honorable discharges in the past due to discriminatory laws like don’t ask, don’t tell continue to do so now, depriving them of all available benefits such as VA loan programs, financial aid for college, health care, and some jobs.
A CBS News investigation over the past six months revealed the Pentagon’s persistent refusal to uphold the service records of thousands of veterans who were denied veterans benefits after their military careers were terminated.
According to the reports, these veterans’ frequently painful discharge from the service had a significant impact on how their lives turned out.
A representative for the Pentagon told CBS News that the agency does not comment on cases that are now in court, but that in a previous statement the military had a mechanism in place that consisted of a brief, two-page application for veterans who wanted to alter their discharge.
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Source: www.cbsnews.com
