News: Pardon Gives Relief to Thousands of Military Service Members

APA News

LGBTQ Military Veteran's Pardoned
LGBTQ Military Veteran’s Pardoned

BY ZEKE MILLER
Updated 6:22 PM MDT, June 26, 2024
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong” to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.

Biden’s action grants a pardon to service members who were convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s former Article 125, which criminalized sodomy. The law, which has been on the books since 1951, was rewritten in 2013 to prohibit only forcible acts. (Read Full Article)