Last June President Biden used his clemency authority to pardon many former LGBTQ service members wrongly convicted under the former Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 125. This article criminalized sodomy between consenting adults between 1951-2013 & until rewritten by Congress resulted in convictions of an estimated 2,000 individuals. This is a significant move recognizing & righting the wrongs inflicted upon our LGBTQ service members who faced discrimination & unjust convictions under policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) but unfortunately it falls a bit short. There are still many of the 100,000 vets pushed out for their sexuality still waiting for justice. To ensure that justice is served swiftly & effectively Modern Military Association of America the LGBTQ+ Military & Veteran org called upon the individual departments of the armed services to exercise their capacity to approve these pardons & subsequently approve their discharge upgrades en masse. What’s confusing in this action is that Biden’s clemency action was bestowed upon a group of unnamed people. Such mass pardons are rare but not unheard of. For instance President Jimmy Carter in 1977 pardoned hundreds of thousands of Vietnam War draft dodgers. Another catch is that only those convicted in a military court of non-forcible sodomy qualify for a pardon & neither the White House nor the Defense Department could define how many veterans that includes or why it excludes so many others. With veteran’s benefits on the line it is crucial that this is resolved ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
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