Gay veterans sue Defense Department over military discharges

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A group of LGBTQ veterans who were dismissed from the U.S. military because of their sexuality are suing the Department of Defense for denying them honorable discharges and listing their sexual orientations on their service records.

In a class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs are asking for the department to grant them honorable discharges so they can access all veteran benefits, including health care, college tuition assistance and loan programs.

 

They are also requesting that language be removed from their discharge documents that notes their sexualities, arguing that the documents — which the plaintiffs say must be provided to access some veterans’ benefits — violate their privacy. 

“Our government and leaders have long acknowledged that the military’s discrimination against LGBTQ+ service members — and what was done to me — was wrong,” one of the named plaintiffs, U.S. Army veteran Steven Egland, said in a statement. “The time has come to rectify it by correcting our records. All of those who served deserve to have documents that reflect the honor in our service.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Defense declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Some of the plaintiffs were dismissed under the military's 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which permitted gays and lesbians to serve as long as they remained closeted, while others were discharged due to previous laws that barred gays and lesbians from military service, according to a statement from the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

More than 13,000 service members were discharged from the U.S. military for violating the “don’t ask, don’t tell”

 

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