[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6147-S6148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 824--RECOGNIZING SEPTEMBER 20, 2024, AS ``NATIONAL 
                         LGBTQ+ VETERANS DAY''

  Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Booker, Ms. Hirono, Mr. 
Blumenthal, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Lujan, Ms. Warren, Mr. Wyden, 
Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Smith, Mr. Schatz, and 
Ms. Duckworth) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs:

                              S. Res. 824

       Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer 
     (referred to in this preamble as ``LGBTQ+'') veterans have 
     honorably served in the Armed Forces in every war to which 
     the United States was a party, beginning with the 
     Revolutionary War;
       Whereas LGBTQ+ veterans have served in the Armed Forces 
     despite discriminatory policies based on who those veterans 
     love or how those veterans identify;
       Whereas, on April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower 
     signed Executive Order 10450 (18 Fed. Reg. 2489; relating to 
     security requirements for Government employment), which 
     declared ``sexual perversion'' and ``treatment for serious 
     mental or neurological disorders'' to be security risks and 
     grounds for denying Federal employment;
       Whereas Executive Order 10450, eventually repealed by 
     President Barack Obama in 2017, contributed to the ``Lavender 
     Scare'' of the 1950s by banning gay and lesbian people from 
     working in the Government, including in the Armed Forces, and 
     was similarly applied to transgender people as early as 1960;
       Whereas, beginning in 1963, Army medical standards 
     disqualified people with ``behavioral disorders'', which was 
     defined to include transgender people, from service in the 
     Army;
       Whereas, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1980s, 
     Department of Defense regulations declared transgender people 
     to be both physically and mentally disordered and abnormal 
     and continued to disqualify transgender people from military 
     service;
       Whereas, in 1982, the Department of Defense implemented a 
     policy stating that ``homosexuality is incompatible with 
     military service'', and between 1980 and 1990, an average of 
     1,500 military servicemembers were discharged every year on 
     the basis of their sexual orientation;
       Whereas, in 1993, as part of the National Defense 
     Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (Public Law 103-160; 
     107 Stat. 1547), Congress enacted the ``Don't Ask, Don't 
     Tell'' policy, which declared that the presence of gay, 
     lesbian, and bisexual people in the

[[Page S6148]]

     Armed Forces was an ``unacceptable risk'' to morale, good 
     order, discipline, and unit cohesion, and required the Armed 
     Forces to discharge servicemembers who--
       (1) engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited 
     ``homosexual acts'';
       (2) stated that they were homosexual or bisexual; or
       (3) married or attempted to marry a same-sex partner;

       Whereas the Department of Defense has acknowledged that 
     13,472 personnel were discharged from the Armed Forces under 
     the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy, and an additional 
     19,365 personnel were discharged between 1980 and 1993 under 
     similar policies that targeted servicemembers based on sexual 
     orientation;
       Whereas the White House estimates that more than 100,000 
     servicemembers have been discharged from the Armed Forces for 
     their sexual orientation or gender identity;
       Whereas, on September 20, 2011, the ``Don't Ask, Don't 
     Tell'' policy was officially repealed, 60 days after 
     President Barack Obama approved its repeal on July 22, 2011, 
     by signing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (10 
     U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 111-321);
       Whereas, on June 30, 2016, the Department of Defense 
     announced an end to the ban on transgender servicemembers 
     across all components of the Department of Defense;
       Whereas, on July 26, 2017, President Donald J. Trump 
     announced that transgender people would not be allowed to 
     serve in the military;
       Whereas, on January 25, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden 
     signed Executive Order 14004 (86 Fed. Reg. 7471; relating to 
     enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in 
     uniform), which repealed the 2017 ban on transgender military 
     servicemembers;
       Whereas the Department of Defense and the Department of 
     Veterans Affairs have taken steps to address the harms done 
     to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans under these 
     discriminatory policies;
       Whereas, in March 2021, the Secretary of Defense announced 
     new policies to undo the President Trump-era rules banning 
     transgender people from serving in the military;
       Whereas those policies included a statement that the 
     Defense Health Agency would develop clinical practice 
     guidelines to support the medical treatment of servicemembers 
     with gender dysphoria, a step that has not yet been 
     completed;
       Whereas, on June 19, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans 
     Affairs announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs 
     would remove the exclusion of gender-affirming surgery from 
     the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits package, but the 
     Department of Veterans Affairs has yet to fulfill that 
     promise;
       Whereas, on September 20, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans 
     Affairs issued the ``Benefits Eligibility for Lesbian, Gay, 
     Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Former Service 
     Members (VIEWS 5810856)'' memorandum detailing how certain 
     former servicemembers discharged under the ``Don't Ask, Don't 
     Tell'' policy with ``other than honorable'' discharges could 
     begin to access full veterans benefits;
       Whereas, on September 20, 2023, the Deputy Secretary of 
     Defense announced that the Department of Defense would 
     proactively review the military records of certain veterans 
     discharged under the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy to 
     identify those who may be eligible for discharge upgrades;
       Whereas, on April 25, 2024, the Department of Veterans 
     Affairs posted a final rule eliminating the regulatory bar 
     for ``homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or 
     other factors affecting the performance of duty'' as an 
     obstacle to benefits, which could help reduce the disparity 
     that LGBTQ+ veterans face in applying for their benefits;
       Whereas, on June 26, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden 
     pardoned veterans who had been convicted in military courts 
     for consensual sodomy between 1951 and 2013 under former 
     article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; and
       Whereas challenges still exist for LGBTQ+ servicemembers 
     and veterans seeking equitable treatment in service and 
     access to benefits: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes September 20, 2024, as ``National LGBTQ+ 
     Veterans Day'';
       (2) celebrates the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, 
     transgender, and queer (referred to in this resolution as 
     ``LGBTQ+'') servicemembers and veterans who have served in 
     the Armed Forces;
       (3) regrets the harm done to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and 
     veterans under the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy and 
     earlier policies, bans on transgender servicemembers, and 
     other policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation 
     and gender identity;
       (4) recognizes how ``other than honorable'' and 
     ``dishonorable'' discharges given to LGBTQ+ servicemembers on 
     the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity--
       (A) prematurely terminated the careers of LGBTQ+ 
     servicemembers in the Armed Forces;
       (B) subjected LGBTQ+ servicemembers to the trauma of 
     investigations and criminal charges;
       (C) unfairly denied LGBTQ+ servicemembers the honor 
     associated with military service;
       (D) deprived LGBTQ+ servicemembers of benefits those 
     servicemembers have earned and deserve as veterans; and
       (E) continue to cause LGBTQ+ servicemembers dignitary harm;
       (5) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 
     Department of Defense to--
       (A) continue implementing policy changes that restore 
     justice and right historical wrongs caused by past 
     government-sponsored discrimination; and
       (B) conduct further outreach for LGBTQ+ veteran communities 
     to ensure that those discharged based on their sexual 
     orientation and gender identity can receive their benefits;
       (6) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 
     Department of Defense to ensure that transgender veterans and 
     servicemembers and their families have access to the full 
     range of health care, including gender-affirming care; and
       (7) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs to remove the 
     exclusion of gender-affirming surgery from the Veterans 
     Affairs Medical Benefits Package.

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