Impact Fund & Allies File Class Action Seeking Justice for LGBTQ+ Veterans
Meredith Dixon, Law Fellow, Impact Fund
This week, the Impact Fund, Legal Aid at Work, and King and Spalding LLP filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the Department of Defense on behalf of a group of LGBTQ+ veterans who were discharged because of their sexual orientation before the 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed, the military stopped discharging servicemembers based on sexual orientation, but it failed to fix the ongoing harm caused by the discharge paperwork issued to the 30,000 or more veterans who had already been ousted under the discriminatory policies.
Specifically, the military failed to correct a document known as “Form DD-214,” which carries markers of discriminatory discharges in two significant ways. First, the DD-214s state that these veterans were discharged for “homosexuality,” “homosexual conduct,” or “homosexual admission.” Second, many of these veterans received a discharge status less than “Honorable” solely because of their sexual orientation, which is prominently listed on the DD-214.
Discharge paperwork has significant long-term effects on the lives of veterans. A veteran’s DD-214 serves as their primary record of service. For these LGBTQ+ veterans, proving their military service – for instance, in applying to jobs or applying for veterans’ benefits – effectively amounts to “outing” their sexual orientation. Veterans who received discharges characterized as something other than “Honorable” are also barred from accessing many of the critical benefits available only to veterans with Honorable discharges. This includes healthcare through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, funding for higher education, home loan financing, job benefits, and more.
To date, the military has sent LGBTQ+ veterans to its standard discharge upgrade and records correction process, which is burdensome, opaque, expensive, and for many, virtually inaccessible. The process takes months or years and requires that veterans prove an error or injustice occurred, despite the Government’s own acknowledgement that DADT was discriminatory.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, argues that failing to fix this discharge paperwork violates veterans’ constitutional rights to privacy, due process, and equal protection under the law. The Plaintiffs are Sherrill Farrell, Steven Egland, James Gonzales, Jules Sohn, and Lilly Steffanides. Plaintiffs seek the removal of comments and codes that identify veterans’ sexual orientation and, when needed, upgraded discharge statuses.
Above all, Plaintiffs seek equal treatment for the tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans that were discriminatorily discharged. As Plaintiff Steve Egland put it, “Our government and leaders have long acknowledged that the military’s discrimination against LGBTQ+ service members – and what was done to me – was wrong. The time has come to rectify it by correcting our records. All of those who served deserve to have documents that reflect the honor in our service.”
For additional information on the case and the named plaintiffs, see the following stories: