Biden to Pardon Military Service Members Convicted Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

More than 6,400 veterans were discharged for their sexual orientation from 1994 to 2011 under less than honorable status.

President Joe Biden speaks at the 2024 Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony on the Michie Stadium at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., on May 25, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

President Joe Biden announced on June 26 that potentially thousands of former military service members convicted under the military’s now-repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy will be pardoned.

President Biden’s action pardons service members convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s former Article 125, which criminalized sodomy. It was updated in 2013 to apply only to cases in which force was used. The administration estimates that the action affects thousands of discharged veterans.