Pentagon gives hundreds discharged under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ full honorable discharge status

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The Pentagon has changed the service records of roughly 800 service members who were discharged from the military under its former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on sexuality, which denied them full benefits. 

The former service members will have their records changed to “honorable” discharge, the Pentagon said Tuesday. 

The 1951 Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 125 had criminalized consensual gay sex. In 1993, then-Democratic President Bill Clinton modified the military’s policy to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” allowing LGBTQ troops to serve if they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation, according to the Associated Press. 

But under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” thousands of service members had their military service terminated without an honorable discharge, which resulted in them not receiving the military benefits they otherwise would have had. Those benefits include one for education, and the discharge classification could have impacted their ability to apply for jobs or loans, the wire service also reports.