Friday, November 13, 2015

Not Even Honorable Mention

We didn’t even get mentioned!
Restoring honor to gay, lesbian and bisexual veterans: ColumnToo many veterans have received less-than-honorable discharges due to their sexual orientation.USA Today
By Brian Schatz, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Pocan and Charles Rangel
November 11, 2015

Congress’s repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a watershed moment that ended institutionalized discrimination unjustly targeting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members. Yet thousands of service members who were discharged because of their sexual orientation still bear the scars of that discrimination. We have introduced a bill called the "Restore Honor to Service Members Act" that would finally correct the record and properly honor our gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.

Since the Second World War, more than 100,000 service members are estimated to have been discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation, many with less-than-honorable discharges that have barred them from the benefits that they earned. Without a bill to protect these veterans, thousands of Americans who risked their lives to serve this country will continue to be denied access to the GI Bill and veterans’ health care, and they will have a more difficult time finding civilian employment. Even those whose discharges were deemed “honorable” still face a high risk of discrimination.  Many times, the reason for their discharge may indicate their sexual orientation, threatening their privacy when they share their paperwork with employers and landlords who may use that information to deny them a job or housing, either overtly or under a false pretense.
And how many trans service members have been discharged because they are trans? And we are still in limbo until next year.

At least they didn’t include trans people in the title and then not write about them like many other articles do.

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