III 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 824 

Recognizing September 20, 2024, as ‘‘National LGBTQ+ Veterans Day’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024 

Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. BENNET, Mr. LUJA ́N, Ms. WARREN, 

Mr. WYDEN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. 

SMITH, Mr. SCHATZ, and Ms. DUCKWORTH) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing September 20, 2024, as ‘‘National LGBTQ+ 

Veterans Day’’. 

Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘LGBTQ+’’) veterans have 

honorably served in the Armed Forces in every war to 

which the United States was a party, beginning with the 

Revolutionary War; 

Whereas LGBTQ+ veterans have served in the Armed 

Forces despite discriminatory policies based on who those 

veterans love or how those veterans identify; 

Whereas, on April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 (18 Fed. Reg. 

2489; relating to security requirements for Government 


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•SRES 824 IS 

employment), which declared ‘‘sexual perversion’’ and 

‘‘treatment for serious mental or neurological disorders’’ 

to be security risks and grounds for denying Federal employment; 

Whereas Executive Order 10450, eventually repealed by 

President Barack Obama in 2017, contributed to the 

‘‘Lavender Scare’’ of the 1950s by banning gay and lesbian people from working in the Government, including 

in the Armed Forces, and was similarly applied to 

transgender people as early as 1960; 

Whereas, beginning in 1963, Army medical standards disqualified people with ‘‘behavioral disorders’’, which was 

defined to include transgender people, from service in the 

Army; 

Whereas, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1980s, Department of Defense regulations declared transgender people 

to be both physically and mentally disordered and abnormal and continued to disqualify transgender people from 

military service; 

Whereas, in 1982, the Department of Defense implemented 

a policy stating that ‘‘homosexuality is incompatible with 

military service’’, and between 1980 and 1990, an average of 1,500 military servicemembers were discharged 

every year on the basis of their sexual orientation; 

Whereas, in 1993, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (Public Law 103–160; 107 

Stat. 1547), Congress enacted the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t 

Tell’’ policy, which declared that the presence of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the Armed Forces was an 

‘‘unacceptable risk’’ to morale, good order, discipline, and 


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unit cohesion, and required the Armed Forces to discharge servicemembers who— 

(1) engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited 

‘‘homosexual acts’’; 

(2) stated that they were homosexual or bisexual; or 

(3) married or attempted to marry a same-sex partner; 

Whereas the Department of Defense has acknowledged that 

13,472 personnel were discharged from the Armed 

Forces under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy, and an 

additional 19,365 personnel were discharged between 

1980 and 1993 under similar policies that targeted 

servicemembers based on sexual orientation; 

Whereas the White House estimates that more than 100,000 

servicemembers have been discharged from the Armed 

Forces for their sexual orientation or gender identity; 

Whereas, on September 20, 2011, the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t 

Tell’’ policy was officially repealed, 60 days after President Barack Obama approved its repeal on July 22, 

2011, by signing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act 

of 2010 (10 U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 111–321); 

Whereas, on June 30, 2016, the Department of Defense announced an end to the ban on transgender 

servicemembers across all components of the Department 

of Defense; 

Whereas, on July 26, 2017, President Donald J. Trump announced that transgender people would not be allowed to 

serve in the military; 

Whereas, on January 25, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden 

signed Executive Order 14004 (86 Fed. Reg. 7471; relating to enabling all qualified Americans to serve their 


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country in uniform), which repealed the 2017 ban on 

transgender military servicemembers; 

Whereas the Department of Defense and the Department of 

Veterans Affairs have taken steps to address the harms 

done to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans under 

these discriminatory policies; 

Whereas, in March 2021, the Secretary of Defense announced new policies to undo the President Trump-era 

rules banning transgender people from serving in the 

military; 

Whereas those policies included a statement that the Defense 

Health Agency would develop clinical practice guidelines 

to support the medical treatment of servicemembers with 

gender dysphoria, a step that has not yet been completed; 

Whereas, on June 19, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs 

would remove the exclusion of gender-affirming surgery 

from the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits package, but 

the Department of Veterans Affairs has yet to fulfill that 

promise; 

Whereas, on September 20, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans 

Affairs issued the ‘‘Benefits Eligibility for Lesbian, Gay, 

Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Former 

Service Members (VIEWS 5810856)’’ memorandum detailing how certain former servicemembers discharged 

under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy with ‘‘other 

than honorable’’ discharges could begin to access full veterans benefits; 

Whereas, on September 20, 2023, the Deputy Secretary of 

Defense announced that the Department of Defense 

would proactively review the military records of certain 


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veterans discharged under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ 

policy to identify those who may be eligible for discharge 

upgrades; 

Whereas, on April 25, 2024, the Department of Veterans Affairs posted a final rule eliminating the regulatory bar for 

‘‘homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or 

other factors affecting the performance of duty’’ as an 

obstacle to benefits, which could help reduce the disparity 

that LGBTQ+ veterans face in applying for their benefits; 

Whereas, on June 26, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden pardoned veterans who had been convicted in military courts 

for consensual sodomy between 1951 and 2013 under 

former article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; and 

Whereas challenges still exist for LGBTQ+ servicemembers 

and veterans seeking equitable treatment in service and 

access to benefits: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes September 20, 2024, as ‘‘Na3 tional LGBTQ+ Veterans Day’’; 

4 (2) celebrates the contributions of lesbian, gay, 

5 bisexual, transgender, and queer (referred to in this 

6 resolution as ‘‘LGBTQ+’’) servicemembers and vet7 erans who have served in the Armed Forces; 

8 (3) regrets the harm done to LGBTQ+ 

9 servicemembers and veterans under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, 

10 Don’t Tell’’ policy and earlier policies, bans on 

11 transgender servicemembers, and other policies that 


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1 discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender 

2 identity; 

3 (4) recognizes how ‘‘other than honorable’’ and 

4 ‘‘dishonorable’’ discharges given to LGBTQ+ 

5 servicemembers on the basis of sexual orientation 

6 and gender identity— 

7 (A) prematurely terminated the careers of 

8 LGBTQ+ servicemembers in the Armed 

9 Forces; 

10 (B) subjected LGBTQ+ servicemembers to 

11 the trauma of investigations and criminal 

12 charges; 

13 (C) unfairly denied LGBTQ+ 

14 servicemembers the honor associated with mili15 tary service; 

16 (D) deprived LGBTQ+ servicemembers of 

17 benefits those servicemembers have earned and 

18 deserve as veterans; and 

19 (E) continue to cause LGBTQ+ 

20 servicemembers dignitary harm; 

21 (5) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 

22 and the Department of Defense to— 

23 (A) continue implementing policy changes 

24 that restore justice and right historical wrongs 


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1 caused by past government-sponsored discrimi2 nation; and 

3 (B) conduct further outreach for 

4 LGBTQ+ veteran communities to ensure that 

5 those discharged based on their sexual orienta6 tion and gender identity can receive their bene7 fits; 

8 (6) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 

9 and the Department of Defense to ensure that 

10 transgender veterans and servicemembers and their 

11 families have access to the full range of health care, 

12 including gender-affirming care; and 

13 (7) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 

14 to remove the exclusion of gender-affirming surgery 

15 from the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits Package. 

Æ 


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