Noteboom The Law Firm

Lawmakers Ask For VA Benefits For Discharged Gay Soldiers

February 11, 2011 - Multiple members of the U.S. House are working to make certain veterans benefits are bestowed upon all those veterans who were discharged for violating the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) law while it was still active. The lawmakers expect both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki to make sure this happens.

Several lawmakers wrote a letter to both the Pentagon and the VA calling for government officials to find a way to make benefits available for those veterans who were discharged under DADT and were given a discharge status less than honorable. A total of 28 members of the House signed the letter, including 4 openly gay members of Congress.

Lawmakers also wrote a letter to Robert Gates explaining how not all soldiers chaptered out of the army for DADT violations were given honorable discharges. Most veterans were given "general," "other than honorable," or even "dishonorable" discharges. Veterans with these types of discharges may not be able to fully qualify for all the veterans' benefits to which they are entitled from their service.

The letter to Gates requested the creation of a "timely and fair mechanism" to deliver just and reasonable decisions to veterans' claims that their discharges under DADT were undeserved. Requested relief will likely include access to both VA and Department of Defense (DoD) benefits to which their service entitled them.

There are paths soldiers can take to petition to have their discharge designations changed. Those paths, however, are long and time consuming to travel with no guaranteed positive outcome. The letters ask Sec. Shinseki to look into developing new ways to make the process easier.