From Military.com: The White House claimed that “thousands” of veterans could benefit when President Biden announced this summer he was issuing pardons to gay veterans who were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation “and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades.”
But three months later, only eight veterans have applied for pardons — six from the Air Force, two from the Army, and none from the Coast Guard, Navy, or Marines.
The dismally low numbers are disappointing advocates who say the promise of Biden’s pardons raised hopes that thousands of LGBTQ veterans would not only lose the stigma of courts-martial but also qualify for long-denied veterans benefits.
The War Horse discovered only eight veterans have applied for pardons since Biden’s June 26 announcement after reaching out over the last two weeks to each branch of the military. The White House did not respond to questions about the lack of applicants or whether it was doing anything more to promote the pardons.
Steve Marose, an Air Force veteran who lives in Seattle, is among the eight who’ve applied, and his case is still under review.
Marose said he was shocked by the response and wondered if the pardons’ limitations have discouraged other veterans.
Only those convicted in a military court of consensual sodomy qualify, but experts say many LGBTQ veterans were forced from the military for decades simply under the threat of a court-martial.
“It sounds like it’s very broad, that thousands of people will be positively impacted,” Marose says. “When you look under the hood,” he said, it seems doubtful that such a large number of veterans will benefit.
Marose was convicted in 1990 of two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer in addition to three counts of consensual sodomy, so he is worried he may not receive a full pardon but decided to submit an application anyway.
His case is not unique. As The War Horse has reported, gay service members who wound up in a military court often faced other charges, including misconduct or conduct unbecoming, putting their eligibility for the pardon in question. . . . . (read the rest on Military.com)
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