A few weeks ago, the Connecticut House of Representatives took the critical step of passing HB 5592, a bill that would expand state benefits to veterans with other than honorable (OTH) discharges who were discharged for their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, but this important bill still awaits action in the Senate.
As the General Assembly recognized in 2018 when it expanded state benefits to certain veterans with mental health conditions, veterans’ benefits can have a crucial impact on a veteran’s ability to reintegrate after leaving the military. Education benefits, healthcare, property tax exemptions, occupational licensing, and more all contribute to a successful transition and allow our veterans to build their lives here in Connecticut.
The loss of such benefits is associated with increases in suicide rates, homelessness, unemployment, and poor health outcomes. Despite the detrimental impacts of stripping veterans of benefits, current state law withholds these vital benefits from certain veterans who were discharged only because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Under the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, along with its even more restrictive predecessors, at least 114,000 LGBTQ servicemembers received less than honorable discharges for no reason other than their identities. After serving in an institution that required them to deny who they were and bearing the personal costs of that kind of rejection by their units and their country, these veterans were denied honorable discharges and stripped of the benefits that should have made them whole.
The military has finally recognized the injustice of this policy and ended DADT, but LGBTQ servicemembers continue to face discrimination, most recently in the form of the now-repealed trans ban. It is unacceptable that our state continues to use discharges given under these conditions as the basis for benefits eligibility, and it is time that we recognize the service and sacrifice of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.
For the veterans impacted by this bill, the dignitary harm of being excluded from the community is immeasurable. Reflecting on his experience, Hubert Spires, a gay Air Force veteran from Connecticut who was denied an honorable discharge until he was 92 years old, said, “I was thought of as nothing.” These kinds of emotional impacts continue today, with transgender troops reporting feelings of worthlessness and fears of being sent away from their units under the trans ban. To compound these mental injuries and further dishonor these veterans’ service by withholding services that would assist their reintegration is unconscionable. These veterans volunteered to serve their country, and like many of us they struggled as a result. We make much of our commitment to veterans and the care that they are owed when they return home. As long as we deny benefits to veterans for their identities, we cannot say that we are living up to that commitment.
Excluding these veterans with OTH discharges from state benefits is not only unjust, it is counterproductive. These are people with a demonstrated call to service who have valuable skills. We do not have a moral duty to care for these veterans, we stand to gain by restoring them and allowing them to be leaders here in our communities. We have lost far too many of these leaders already, and we cannot continue to turn them away. It is time for us to honor our commitment to all of our veterans — regardless of who they are or who they love — and pass HB 5592 in the Senate.
Steve Kennedy is an Iraq war veteran and the Connecticut Team Leader of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
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May 24, 2021 at 03:20AM
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Accept military veterans for who they are - New Haven Register
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