[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 408 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 408
Recognizing September 20, 2025, as ``National LGBTQ+ Servicemembers and
Veterans Day''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 18 (legislative day, September 16), 2025
Mr. Merkley (for himself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms.
Duckworth, Mr. Fetterman, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Lujan, Mrs. Murray, Mr.
Padilla, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Smith, Ms. Warren,
Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Booker, and Mr. Durbin) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing September 20, 2025, as ``National LGBTQ+ Servicemembers and
Veterans Day''.
Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (referred to in this
preamble as ``LGBTQ+'') servicemembers and veterans have honorably
served in the Armed Forces in every war to which the United States was a
party, beginning with the Revolutionary War;
Whereas LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans have served in the Armed Forces
despite discriminatory policies based on who they love or how they
identify;
Whereas, on April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive
Order 10450 (18 Fed. Reg. 2489; relating to security requirements for
Government employment), which declared ``sexual perversion'' and
``treatment for serious mental or neurological disorders'' to be
security risks and grounds for denying Federal employment;
Whereas Executive Order 10450, eventually repealed by President Barack Obama in
2017, contributed to the ``Lavender Scare'' of the 1950s by banning gay
and lesbian people from working in the Government, including in the
Armed Forces, and was similarly applied to transgender people as early
as 1960;
Whereas, beginning in 1963, Army medical standards disqualified people with
``behavioral disorders'', which was defined to include transgender
people, from service in the Army;
Whereas, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1980s, Department of Defense
regulations declared transgender people to be both physically and
mentally disordered and abnormal and continued to disqualify transgender
people from military service;
Whereas, in 1982, the Department of Defense implemented a policy stating that
``homosexuality is incompatible with military service'', and between
1980 and 1990, an average of 1,500 military servicemembers were
discharged every year on the basis of their sexual orientation;
Whereas, in 1993, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 1994 (Public Law 103-160; 107 Stat. 1547), Congress enacted the
``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy, which declared that the presence of
gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the Armed Forces was an
``unacceptable risk'' to morale, good order, discipline, and unit
cohesion, and required the Armed Forces to discharge servicemembers
who--
(1) engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited ``homosexual
acts'';
(2) stated that they were homosexual or bisexual; or
(3) married or attempted to marry a same-sex partner;
Whereas the Department of Defense has acknowledged that 13,472 personnel were
discharged from the Armed Forces under the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell''
policy, and an additional 19,365 personnel were discharged between 1980
and 1993 under similar policies that targeted servicemembers based on
sexual orientation;
Whereas the White House estimates that more than 100,000 servicemembers have
been discharged from the Armed Forces for their sexual orientation or
gender identity;
Whereas, on September 20, 2011, the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy was
officially repealed, 60 days after President Barack Obama approved its
repeal on July 22, 2011, by signing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act
of 2010 (10 U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 111-321);
Whereas, on June 30, 2016, the Department of Defense announced an end to the ban
on transgender servicemembers across all components of the Department of
Defense;
Whereas, on July 26, 2017, President Donald J. Trump announced that transgender
people would not be allowed to serve in the military;
Whereas, on January 25, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden signed Executive Order
14004 (86 Fed. Reg. 7471; relating to enabling all qualified Americans
to serve their country in uniform), which repealed the 2017 ban on
transgender military servicemembers;
Whereas the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have
taken steps to address the harms done to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and
veterans under these discriminatory policies;
Whereas, in March 2021, the Secretary of Defense announced new policies to undo
the President Trump-era rules banning transgender people from serving in
the military;
Whereas those policies included a statement that the Defense Health Agency would
develop clinical practice guidelines to support the medical treatment of
servicemembers with gender dysphoria, a step that has not yet been
completed;
Whereas, on June 19, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs announced that the
Department of Veterans Affairs would remove the exclusion of gender-
affirming surgery from the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits package,
but the Department of Veterans Affairs has yet to fulfill that promise;
Whereas, on September 20, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs issued the
``Benefits Eligibility for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer
(LGBTQ+) Former Service Members (VIEWS 5810856)'' memorandum detailing
how certain former servicemembers discharged under the ``Don't Ask,
Don't Tell'' policy with ``other than honorable'' discharges could begin
to access full veterans benefits;
Whereas, on September 20, 2023, the Deputy Secretary of Defense announced that
the Department of Defense would proactively review the military records
of certain veterans discharged under the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell''
policy to identify those who may be eligible for discharge upgrades;
Whereas, on April 25, 2024, the Department of Veterans Affairs posted a final
rule eliminating the regulatory bar for ``homosexual acts involving
aggravating circumstances or other factors affecting the performance of
duty'' as an obstacle to benefits, which could help reduce the disparity
that LGBTQ+ veterans face in applying for their benefits;
Whereas, on June 26, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden pardoned veterans who had
been convicted in military courts for consensual sodomy between 1951 and
2013 under former article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice;
Whereas, on January 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order
14183 (90 Fed. Reg. 8757; relating to prioritizing military excellence
and readiness), which reinstated the ban on transgender servicemembers
and directed the Department of Defense to end its usage of pronouns and
prevent transgender people from using facilities that align with their
gender identity;
Whereas, on February 7, 2025, the Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum
halting all gender-affirming medical procedures for servicemembers;
Whereas, on February 26, 2025, the Department of Defense announced that
transgender and nonbinary servicemembers are ``no longer eligible for
military service'' and ``will be processed for separation from military
service'';
Whereas, on March 17, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it
will no longer offer gender-affirming hormone therapy to veterans who
were not already receiving such care; and
Whereas challenges still exist for LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans seeking
equitable treatment in service and access to benefits: Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes September 20, 2025, as ``National LGBTQ+
Servicemembers and Veterans Day'';
(2) celebrates the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer (referred to in this resolution as
``LGBTQ+'') servicemembers and veterans who have served in the
Armed Forces;
(3) regrets the harm done to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and
veterans under the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy and earlier
policies, bans on transgender servicemembers, and other
policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation and
gender identity;
(4) recognizes how ``other than honorable'' and
``dishonorable'' discharges given to LGBTQ+ servicemembers on
the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity--
(A) prematurely terminated the careers of LGBTQ+
servicemembers in the Armed Forces;
(B) subjected LGBTQ+ servicemembers to the trauma
of investigations and criminal charges;
(C) unfairly denied LGBTQ+ servicemembers the honor
associated with military service;
(D) deprived LGBTQ+ servicemembers of benefits
those servicemembers have earned and deserve as
veterans; and
(E) continue to cause LGBTQ+ servicemembers
dignitary harm;
(5) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs and the
Department of Defense--
(A) to implement policy changes that restore
justice and right wrongs caused by past and present
government-sponsored discrimination; and
(B) to conduct further outreach to LGBTQ+ service
member and veteran communities to ensure that those
discharged based on their sexual orientation and gender
identity can receive their benefits;
(6) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs and the
Department of Defense to ensure that transgender veterans and
servicemembers and their families have access to the full range
of health care, including gender-affirming care; and
(7) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs to remove the
exclusion of gender-affirming surgery from the Veterans Affairs
Medical Benefits Package.
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