(Photo: U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.)
A fresh report has shed new light on the US military's ingrained discrimination against LGBTQ service members over the last few decades. The data indicates that more than 29,000 personnel, dismissed due to their sexual orientation, were unjustly denied honorable discharges.
The notorious "don't ask, don't tell" policy, implemented between 1994 to 2011, is estimated to have led to the expulsion of roughly 14,000 service members. The recent data, however, unveils a broader timeframe from 1980 to 2010, ending when federal courts struck down the ban on openly gay and lesbian military members.
The information, sourced by CBS News through a Freedom of Information Act request to Legal Aid At Work, uncovers that 35,801 individuals were discharged or separated from October 1, 1980 to September 20, 2011, due to "real or perceived homosexuality, homosexual conduct, sexual perversion, or any other related reason." Of these, a staggering 81 percent resulted in general discharges, bad conduct discharges, or dishonorable discharges - all of which fall short of honorable discharges.
However, the Department of Defense (DoD) provided conflicting figures, highlighting the long-standing ambiguity regarding the precise number of impacted service members. When contacted by CBS News, the DoD's Office of Legal Policy countered with alternate figures, suggesting that between 1970 and 2011, most service members dismissed due to homosexuality received honorable discharges.
Upon further inquiry, the government shared a partial breakdown: 23,392 honorable discharges, 11,023 general discharges under honorable conditions, and 5,374 uncharacterized discharges. The report, however, did not include figures on the most severe forms of discharges.
The inconsistency between data from the DoD's Office of Legal Policy and its Freedom of Information Division is unexplained, but unsurprising to experts, considering the military's long-standing lack of transparency and clarity.
The report further highlights the military's failure to actively reevaluate cases where service members were unjustly convicted and handed criminal records for engaging in same-sex relationships. Given that numerous service members were expelled under a variety of laws besides those explicitly banning homosexuality, the figures revealed could represent just a fragment of the actual impact.
