military’s long-standing policies of homophobic exclusion and oppression continue to impact many veterans’ lives. Supreme Court decision to essentially nullify the Defense of Marriage Act to its recent ruling that marriage equality is a constitutional right, it can be easy to forget how the U.S. In the celebratory atmosphere that has followed LGBT gains of recent years, from the 2014 U.S. According to American Veterans for Equal Rights, between World War II and 2011, the year President Clinton’s don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy was scrapped, “approximately 114,000 service members were discharged because of their sexual orientation.” Though Faulkner’s story of military rebuke may be unique in its details, the circumstances are well-known to far too many gay veterans. Victorious in the last fight of his life, he died just a few short weeks later. government stained his military record with an “undesirable” dismissal, Faulkner’s discharge was upgraded and his years of service to his country finally fully recognized. For almost 60 years, the designation remained on his military record, yet another aspect of his life he felt forced to cloak in secrecy and shame.Īfter being diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2013 (he came out to his family in 2005 and lost his partner of two decades just a few years later), the ex-Marine decided to dedicate the remaining months of his life to one singular battle: upgrading his military discharge classification to its rightful designation of “honorable.” Aided by a pro-bono lawyer and with support from OutServe-Service Legal Defense Network, a reclassification was granted by the Department of Defense within just a few months. Nearly six decades after the U.S. In 1956, Hal Faulkner received an “undesirable” discharge from the United States Marines, the consequence of being a gay man during a time when the military not only banned gays from service, but classified homosexuality as a form of mental pathology. In 1967, the military issued Canadian Forces Administrative Order 19-20, "Homosexuality - Sexual Abnormality Investigation, Medical Examination and Disposal," which formally banned gays from serving.This article originally appeared on AlterNet. Ross accepted a discharge rather than spend the remainder of his naval career performing "general duties," with no hope for promotion or advancement, they say.
He eventually admitted being gay while attached to a polygraph machine, an experience that was incredibly traumatic, his lawyers plan to argue in court. Todd Ross, one of the lead plaintiffs in the court case, joined the Forces in 1987 at age 18 and came under investigation by the military police. "It may entail pulling and reviewing every single personnel file from Library and Archives Canada to determine the circumstances of each case." The government is committed to conducting archival research to try to determine the number of people affected by the policies, Parker said. The lawyers chose the date of decriminalization as the starting point because, since homosexual acts were illegal until that point, breaking a law would have provided the government with legal grounds for disciplining or firing employees.