On Wednesday, Joe Biden issued several presidential pardons for veterans who had previously been convicted and removed from the military under a prior law forbidding homosexual activities in the military.
As reported by Axios, the law in question, the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 125, was first enacted in the 1950s before being repealed in 2013. The law declared that those who engaged in “unnatural carnal copulation” were guilty of “sodomy.” It was repealed through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2014, and replaced with a new law that still made it a crime to commit sodomy by force.
“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” said Biden in a statement. “Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
However, the pardon will not alter the criminal records of the veterans in question; instead, they will now be allowed to apply for a pardon that will enable them to receive benefits that were previously unavailable to them due to their discharge status.
Biden’s move is part of a broader pattern of encouraging and promoting homosexuality and other forms of sexual deviancy in the United States military. The Department of Defense (DOD) is currently conducting a review into veterans who were similarly discharged under the previous policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). It is estimated that DADT resulted in the discharge of approximately 32,837 service members between the years 1980 and 2011.
Start the discussion at community.amgreatness.com