Military grants honorable discharges to some ousted by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Hundreds of military service members kicked out of the armed forces because of their sexual orientation under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be given honorable discharges, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

More than 13,000 service members were separated under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prevented the military from asking about sexual orientation but also forbade service members from making it public. Nearly 2,000 of those discharges were “with less than fully honorable characterizations,” Defense Department official Christa Specht said in a news release.

The policy was in place from 1994 to 2011, when it was repealed. Last year, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks started a review of those discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to see whether their less-than-honorable discharges could be upgraded.

The change may give those former military members access to veterans’ benefits that had been denied because of their dishonorable-discharge status, the news release said.