•HRES 1329 IH 
and discharged solely on the basis of the sexual orienta-
tion of those military service members; 
Whereas historians have estimated that at least 100,000 mili-
tary service members were forced out of the uniformed 
services between World War II and 2011 simply for being 
LGBT, while countless others were forced to hide their 
identities and live in fear while serving, with many being 
denied access to the benefits granted to honorably dis-
charged veterans; 
Whereas, although the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy was in-
tended to allow qualified citizens to serve in the Armed 
Forces regardless of their sexual orientation, the policy 
was inherently discriminatory against LGBT military 
service members because it prohibited those service mem-
bers from disclosing their sexual orientation; 
Whereas, with the enactment of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell 
Repeal Act of 2010 (10 U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 
111321), Congress joined military leaders in acknowl-
edging that lesbian, gay, and bisexual military service 
members serve the United States just as bravely and well 
as other military service members; 
Whereas the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (10 
U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 111321) and the 2016 pol-
icy shift of the Department of Defense, which permitted 
transgender individuals to enlist and openly serve in the 
Armed Forces, have made the Armed Forces stronger 
and more effective; 
Whereas, in 2023, 12 years after the repeal of the ‘‘Don’t 
Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy, the Department of Defense an-
nounced a proactive review initiative to identify veterans 
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•HRES 1329 IH 
discharged due to their sexual orientation and assess 
whether an upgrade in discharge is warranted; 
Whereas military leaders have likewise acknowledged that, in 
addition to lesbian, gay, and bisexual military service 
members, transgender service members also serve the 
United States just as bravely and well as other service 
members; 
Whereas, under the pressures of the Cold War, and at the 
instigation and lead of Congress, the Federal Government 
also pursued anti-LGBT policies, which resulted in tens 
of thousands of LGBT civilian employees being termi-
nated; 
Whereas the Department of State began investigations into 
employees for alleged homosexual activity as early as the 
1940s; 
Whereas following the targeting of gay employees in the De-
partment of State by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950, 
the Senate held hearings on ‘‘The Employment of Homo-
sexuals and other Sex Perverts in the Government’’, 
which— 
(1) led to the issuance of a widely read report that 
falsely asserted that gay people posed a security risk be-
cause they could be easily blackmailed; and 
(2) found that gay people were unsuitable employees 
because ‘‘one homosexual can pollute a Government of-
fice’’; 
Whereas, in response to allegations against gay people made 
by Senator McCarthy, the Department of State increased 
its persecution of lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees; 
Whereas more than 1,000 Department of State employees 
were dismissed due to their sexual orientation, and many 
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•HRES 1329 IH 
more individuals were prevented from joining the Depart-
ment of State due to discriminatory hiring practices; 
Whereas thousands of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals 
served honorably in the Department of State as Foreign 
Service officers, Foreign Service specialists, civil servants, 
and contractors, upholding the values, and advancing the 
interests, of the United States even as the country dis-
criminated against them; 
Whereas the effort to purge gay and lesbian employees from 
the Federal Government was codified in 1953 when 
President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 
10450 (18 Fed. Reg. 2489; relating to security require-
ments for Government employment), which— 
(1) defined ‘‘perversion’’ as a security threat; and 
(2) mandated that every civilian employee and con-
tractor pass a security clearance; 
Whereas, over many decades, the Federal Government, led by 
security officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 
the Civil Service Commission (referred to in this pre-
amble as the ‘‘CSC’’), and nearly every other agency of 
the Federal Government, investigated, harassed, interro-
gated, and terminated thousands of lesbian, gay, and bi-
sexual civilian employees for no other reason than the 
sexual orientation of those employees; 
Whereas these discriminatory policies by the Federal Govern-
ment, the largest employer in the United States, encour-
aged similar efforts at the State and local level, particu-
larly in higher education and the private sector; 
Whereas, in 1969, the United States Court of Appeals for the 
District of Columbia Circuit ruled in Norton v. Macy, 
417 F.2d 1161 (1969) that— 
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(1) ‘‘homosexual conduct’’ may never be the sole 
cause for dismissal of a protected civilian employee; and 
(2) the potential embarrassment stemming from the 
private conduct of a civilian employee may not affect the 
efficiency of the Federal civil service; 
Whereas, despite the decision in Norton v. Macy, the CSC 
continued its efforts to rid the Federal Government of 
gay, lesbian, and bisexual employees until 1973, when the 
United States District Court for the Northern District of 
California ruled in Society for Individual Rights, Inc. v. 
Hampton, 63 F.R.D. 399 (1973) that the exclusion or 
discharge from Federal civil service of any lesbian, gay, 
or bisexual person because of prejudice was prohibited; 
Whereas many Federal Government agencies, including the 
National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy, and the Department of State, none of which were 
subject to the rules of the CSC, continued to harass and 
seek to exclude lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals 
from their ranks until 1995, when President Bill Clinton 
issued Executive Order 12968 (50 U.S.C. 3161 note; re-
lating to access to classified information), which barred 
the practice of denying a Federal Government security 
clearance solely on the basis of sexual orientation; 
Whereas transgender military service members, Foreign Serv-
ice members, and civilian employees continued to be har-
assed and excluded from Federal civil service until 2014, 
when President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 
13672 (79 Fed. Reg. 42971; relating to further amend-
ments to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Op-
portunity in the Federal Government, and Executive 
Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity), which 
prohibited the Federal Government and Federal contrac-
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tors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orienta-
tion or gender identity; 
Whereas, on January 9, 2017, Secretary of State John Kerry 
issued a formal apology for the pattern of discrimination 
against LGBT Foreign Service members and civilian em-
ployees at the Department of State; 
Whereas, despite persecution and systematic mistreatment by 
the Federal Government beginning in the early 1940s 
through the 1990s, including what historians have labeled 
as the ‘‘Lavender Scare’’, LGBT individuals have never 
stopped honorably serving the United States; 
Whereas LGBT individuals continued to make significant 
contributions to the United States through their work as 
clerks and lawyers, surgeons and nurses, Purple Heart 
recipients and Navy Seals, translators and air traffic con-
trollers, engineers and astronomers, teachers and dip-
lomats, rangers and Postal Service workers, and advisors 
and policy makers; 
Whereas other countries throughout the world, including 
some of the closest allies of the United States, have 
apologized for similarly discriminating against LGBT 
military service members, Foreign Service members, and 
civilian employees; and 
Whereas, in order for the United States to heal and move 
forward, the Federal Government must accord all LGBT 
individuals who were discriminated against by, wrongfully 
terminated by, and excluded from serving in the uni-
formed services, the Foreign Service, and the Federal 
civil service the same acknowledgment and apology: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, 
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