President Joe Biden will use his clemency powers to pardon service members who were convicted under a now-defunct Uniform Code of Military Justice provision that barred gay sex for more than six decades, according to the White House.
The pardons could potentially affect thousands of veterans who were punished for consensual sex under the military law beginning in the 1950s and eventually allow them access to benefits they have been denied. The pardons will permit them to apply to the military to have discharge characterizations changed.
“We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members — including our brave LGBTQ+ service members — to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. “Today, we are making progress in that pursuit.”
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In a call with reporters, officials with the Biden administration explained that thousands of service members were forced out of the military over the last several decades because of their sexual orientation. The last military policy banning gay troops from serving openly, called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was repealed in 2011.
The Biden administration will now pardon any service member who was convicted under the sodomy law — known as Article 125 — of…
