Veterans Discharged Under ‘Don't Ask, Don’t Tell’ Are Eligible for Full V.A. Benefits

Politics|Veterans discharged nether ‘don't ask, don’t tell’ are eligible for afloat V.A. benefits.

• Sept. 20, 2021, 8:00 p.m. ET

Veterans who were discharged from the subject nether the “don’t ask, don’t tell” argumentation whitethorn beryllium eligible for afloat benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs nether caller guidance issued connected Monday.

The announcement comes connected the 10th day of the policy’s repeal by President Barack Obama.

In a blog station connected the V.A.’s website, Kayla Williams, the adjunct caput for nationalist affairs successful the V.A.’s Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, said that veterans who were fixed different than honorable discharges based connected homosexual conduct, sex individuality oregon H.I.V. presumption “are considered veterans” who whitethorn beryllium eligible for each V.A. benefits. The “other than honorable” discharge blocked tens of thousands of veterans from obtaining the afloat scope of services and care.

“L.G.B.T.Q.+ veterans are not immoderate little worthy of the attraction and services that each veterans gain done their service, and V.A. is committed to making definite that they person adjacent entree to those services,” Ms. Williams, who is simply a bisexual veteran, wrote.

Those affected by the argumentation whitethorn present suffice for benefits including guaranteed location loans, compensation and pension, wellness care, lodging assistance and burial benefits, barring immoderate statutory oregon regulatory contented with their subject record.

“Although V.A. recognizes that the trauma caused by the military’s decades-long argumentation of favoritism against L.G.B.T.Q.+ radical cannot beryllium undone successful a fewer abbreviated months, the Biden medication and Secretary McDonough are taking the steps indispensable to statesman addressing the symptom that specified policies person created,” Ms. Williams wrote, referring to the V.A. secretary, Denis R. McDonough.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” was a argumentation enacted successful 1994, nether President Bill Clinton, that barred openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving successful the military. The V.A. reported that the argumentation led to the discharge of an estimated 14,000 work members during the 17 years it was successful effect.