The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) filed a complaint in federal court late last month, alleging that VA has not responded to requests to release what the department called “newly-issued guidance.”
“There was all this attention with the announcement, then we started asking around, and no one had a copy of the policy,” said Renee Burbank, the nonprofit’s director of litigation. “What does it actually say? What does it actually change or do? For all we know, it could be perfect. It could be great. But we don’t know unless we see it.”
Since Congress first banned sodomy under the 1916 Articles of War, more than 100,000 people have been pushed out of the military because of their sexuality, including an estimated 14,000 under President Bill Clinton’s policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Because many of those were booted from the military with “less than honorable” or “other than honorable” discharges, thousands of people ousted under “don’t ask, don’t tell” do not have benefits, including access to health care, home loans and educational support through VA.
Last fall, on the 10th anniversary of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” VA spokeswoman Kayla Williams announced in a blog post that the department planned to issue new guidance allowing VA adjudicators to possibly grant benefits to servicemembers who were discharged based on homosexual conduct, gender identity or HIV status. Williams said the new guidance would also direct adjudicators to consider changing the discharge status for veterans who were kicked out because of their sexuality.
Veterans groups celebrated the announcement. But in the 10 months since, Burbank said, officials at VA have not explained how it will decide who will receive the benefits. The NVLSP filed a public records request in April to review the guidance, and VA officials acknowledged receipt of the request, but they have not fulfilled it, the complaint alleges. (Officials at VA did not respond to multiple requests from The Washington Post for comment.)
Without a written version of the guidance, Burbank said, many veterans appear to remain ineligible for benefits. A VA regulation, for example, still states that if a servicemember was separated from the military due to “homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or affecting the performance of duty,” they are barred from most VA benefits, with no corresponding provision for heterosexual acts.
Many others, including Navy veteran Stephan Steffanides, are still struggling to upgrade their discharges.
When Steffanides, who is nonbinary, joined the Navy in 1987, they intended to spend the rest of their life in the military. For a hundred years, they said, all their male relatives had served, and Steffanides grew up hoping to emulate them.
The Navy assigned Steffanides to the USS Abraham Lincoln, a ship that docked in Norfolk and Newport News, and Steffanides said they immediately felt happy. They had always longed to sail. But a few years later, Naval superiors found a magazine in Steffanides’s locker. The Navy began investigating, and on Christmas Eve 1991, the Navy kicked Steffanides out for “engaging in or attempting to engage in or soliciting another to engage in a homosexual act.”
The Navy issued Steffanides an “other than honorable” discharge.
“I was completely ashamed,” Steffanides said. “It completely destroyed my relationship with my family.”
Read More: Veterans ousted under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ still await VA benefits
