President Joe Biden is set to pardon thousands of veterans who were convicted under a military law that prohibited gay sex, his administration announced on Wednesday.
The pardon will apply to service members convicted between 1951 and 2013 under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which criminalized sodomy and essentially banned gay and lesbian service members from having sex. The pardon will affect about 2,000 people, CNN reported.
“This is about dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation,” Biden said in a statement.
Those who are eligible can apply for a certificate of pardon, and if approved, they will be able to petition to have their discharge records changed, according to NBC News. Biden administration officials told reporters that the president was “righting an historic wrong.”
The U.S. military has a long and sordid record of discriminating against LGBTQ service members. Both men and women have been prosecuted under military law and discharged from the military for their sexual orientation. In 1993, President Bill Clinton implemented the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that barred openly queer people from serving in the military, intended as a kind of middle ground that allowed gay people to serve so long as they were not open about their sexual orientation. President Barack Obama repealed the policy in 2010 and, three years later, Congress lifted the ban on gay sex in the military.
Biden will issue a clemency proclamation on Thursday, administration officials said, just hours before he is scheduled to debate Donald Trump for the first time in this election. Among other policy issues, Biden is likely to seek to distinguish his record on LGBTQ rights from that of his opponent, who has vowed to dismantle protections for transgender people if re-elected.
More people now identify as queer than ever before, according to a recent Gallup survey. With the 2024 election set to be a razor-thin race, LGBTQ voters may play a decisive role, especially in battleground states; a Washington Post analysis found that LGBTQ voters may have been crucial to Biden's 2020 election win.