Sexual orientation in the United States military
Although there were isolated instances in which service personnel were met with limited success through lawsuits, efforts to end the ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people serving either legislatively or through the courts initially proved unsuccessful.
[1] In June 2024, US President Joe Biden signed a “pardon proclamation” - that formally effected thousands of military veterans with historical gay sex criminal records.
[5][6] The first evidence of antipathy to homosexuals serving in the United States military dates from March 11, 1778, when Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin was drummed out of the Continental Army following his conviction at court-martial on charges of sodomy and perjury.
[11] The United States Army Surgeon General's office issued a circular in 1941 that for the first time classified "homosexual proclivities" as disqualifying inductees from military service.
[13] The Women's Army Corps instituted harsh screening policies for recruits, often based on physical appearance and gender conformity, in order to exclude lesbians from service.
[14] With the mass mobilization and deployment of troops for operations in World War II, it became impractical to convene court-martial boards for homosexual conduct offenses.
[16] For example, staff sergeant Allen Irvin Bernstein, who was arrested in January 1944 by military police after a failed pickup attempt with another soldier, was confined in a psychiatric ward at Camp Lee, Virginia, and discharged within a month.
He subsequently appealed the discharge decision, attaching a copy of his 140-page defense of homosexuality, Millions of Queers (Our Homo America), which, however, was ignored and remained forgotten and unpublished until rediscovered in 2010 by a researcher in the National Library of Medicine.
The group disbanded in 1954,[23] and several of its members later formed the New York chapter of homophile advocacy group One, Inc.[24] In October 1949, the newly consolidated Department of Defense standardized anti-homosexual regulations across all branches of the military: "Homosexual personnel, irrespective of sex, should not be permitted to serve in any branch of the Armed Forces in any capacity, and prompt separation of known homosexuals from the Armed Forces is mandatory.
"[29] San Francisco politician and gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk served in the United States Navy during the Korean War.
"[34] In 1981, the Department of Defense issued a new regulation on homosexuality that was designed to ensure withstanding a court challenge by developing uniform and clearly defined regulations and justifications that made homosexual status, whether self-applied or by the military, and conduct grounds for discharge (DOD Directive 1332.14 (Enlisted Administrative Separations), January 1981): The directive justified the policy and removed the "queen for a day" rule that had prompted some courts to rule against the armed forces.
In the 1980s, many of the Democratic Party presidential candidates expressed an interest in changing the regulations concerning homosexuality in the armed forces, and, as American social mores changed, public opinion began to express more sympathy with gay people in armed forces, at least to the extent that investigations into a serviceman or -woman's sexual behavior and/or orientation were seen as a witch-hunt.
Among the earliest were Leonard Matlovich, who fought to remain in the Air Force after coming out in 1975,[36] and Perry Watkins, who was drafted in 1967 despite disclosing his homosexuality on his induction papers.
[40] Other high-profile discharges included those of Vernon Berg, III, Keith Meinhold, and Tracy Thorne from the Navy; Joseph Steffan from the Naval Academy; Margarethe Cammermeyer from the Washington National Guard; and Miriam Ben-Shalom from the Army Reserve.
At the height of the push to rescind the ban before DADT, Miriam Ben-Shalom joined with other discharged personnel to form the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America.
Other organizations include Servicemembers United which formed in 2005 by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,[41] and groups associated with West Point (Knights Out) and the Naval Academy (USNA Out).
In both United States v. Stirewalt and United States v. Marcum, the court found Article 125 constitutional, but ruled that the "conduct falls within the liberty interest identified by the Supreme Court,"[42] but also said that despite the application of Lawrence to the military, Article 125 could still be upheld in cases where there are "factors unique to the military environment" that would place the conduct "outside any protected liberty interest recognized in Lawrence",[43] such as fraternization, public sexual behavior, or anything that would adversely affect good order and discipline.
[46] Major legal challenges to the DADT policy include Witt v. Department of the Air Force and Log Cabin Republicans v. United States.
In the second, Federal Judge Virginia A. Phillips ordered the military on October 12, 2010, to suspend and discontinue any investigation or discharge, separation, or other proceeding that began under DADT.
[59] During the weeks of press coverage that ensued, Fort Bragg's commander said he lacked authority over the private organization while the U.S. Marines announced that clubs conducting business on base must admit same-sex spouses.
DoD officials said the leave was for travel and cited Texas or South Korea as locations that pose problems for same-sex couples seeking to marry.
[82] On June 27, the federal judge hearing the case asked the parties to explain by July 18 why the logic that found Windsor unconstitutional did not apply to that definition as well.
"[92][93] In several states that did not recognize same-sex marriages– notably Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas– National Guard officials initially refused to comply with Department of Defense directives to allow the same-sex spouses National Guard members in their states to enroll in federal benefit programs, instead requiring such members to travel to federal facilities to do so.
[97] On November 20, after DoD officials objected to that plan, Fallin ordered that all married couples would be required to have benefits requests processed at those facilities.
[102] The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 enacted in December 2013 repealed the ban on consensual sodomy found in Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
[105] In their article, Sherman and her coauthors explain that in the past, most of the gay and lesbian veterans were uncomfortable in disclosing their sexual orientations or identities because they were afraid that this information could lead to their discharge from the military.
[105] Sherman and her coauthors conducted a study on the communications between the gay and lesbian veterans with their VHA providers and the experiences regarding their healthcare services.
[105] The results of the study also show that some gay and lesbian veterans are disinclined to seek medical treatment from the VHA, and some of them are having trouble in finding equitable healthcare services.
[105] Based on their data, if the gay and lesbian veterans can divulge information about their personal medical history, values, and preferences, they may experience higher levels of patient satisfaction.
[107] Also in June 2024, US President Joe Biden signed a “pardon proclamation” - that formally effected thousands of military veterans with historical gay sex criminal records.
