Biden expected to pardon veterans convicted under military law banning gay sex, officials say

CNN —

President Joe Biden is expected to pardon US veterans who were convicted by the military over a 60-year period under a military law that banned gay sex, three US officials told CNN.

The pardon proclamation is expected to be announced on Wednesday and one official said it is set to affect roughly 2,000 people. The granting of pardons won’t automatically change convicted veterans’ records but allows those impacted to apply for a certificate of pardon that will help them receive withheld benefits.

The pardon, which CNN is first to report on, specifically grants clemency to service members who were convicted under former Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 125 — which criminalized sodomy, including between consenting adults — between 1951 and 2013 when it was rewritten by Congress. It also applies to those who were convicted of attempting to commit those offenses.

Anyone who was convicted of a non-consensual act such as rape will not be pardoned.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Separately, the law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed by Congress in 2011, but not before thousands of service members had been discharged from the military.

A service member’s discharge status can determine what kind of Veterans Affairs benefits they are eligible for. A bad-conduct discharge, for example, given under general court-martial, can make someone ineligible for services including a VA home loan military pension, and education benefits.

The pardon is separate from the Pentagon’s ongoing review of military records for those who were discharged based on their sexual orientation, which one of the officials said did not apply to convictions under the UCMJ. The Pentagon launched a