Army vet still paying the price for bad paper discharge for being gay

Editor’s observe: This article first appeared on The Warfare Horse, an award-winning nonprofit information group educating the general public on navy service. Subscribe to their e-newsletter.

Within the darkness of early morning, Mona McGuire startled awake. A fist beat on the barracks door. Her coronary heart accelerated right into a full gallop, after which the yelling started.

Detectives from the Military’s legal investigation division had burst into her room. They stripped her bedding, handcuffed her, together with three different feminine troopers, and drove them to headquarters for fingerprinting, a mug shot, and hours of questioning.

It was Might 1988, and McGuire’s interrogators knew every part — her romantic companion, the place she frolicked, even her menstrual cycle. Finally, McGuire admitted that, sure, she had been intimate with ladies.

It not solely ended her Military profession on the age of 20, it stays on her report to at the present time: The navy branded McGuire with a biblically archaic crime, forcing her to plead responsible to expenses of sodomy and an indecent act to keep away from a court-martial and presumably jail.

“I used to be embarrassed. I used to be ashamed,” mentioned McGuire, who now lives in suburban Milwaukee.

For 35 years, solely her closest pals knew why she left the service.

But, even in the present day, within the eyes of the Division of Veterans Affairs — an company that’s flown delight flags in entrance of its hospitals—she’s thought of an outcast, ineligible for advantages like well being care.

It’s an nearly unthinkable relic of a discriminatory period that the navy continues to be struggling to restore, advocates say. McGuire is amongst as many as 100,000 veterans compelled out of the navy due to their sexual orientation from the Nineteen Fifties by means of the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t inform” coverage in 2011.

Whereas a much-heralded reform this month may ease restrictions for 1000’s of veterans denied VA advantages previously, it gained’t assist McGuire and an unknown variety of LGBTQ veterans nonetheless stigmatized with legal convictions for being homosexual.

“I really feel like some individuals had the attitude that after ‘don’t ask, don’t inform’ was repealed, every part can be effective,” says Dana Montalto, an lawyer with the Veterans Authorized Clinic at Harvard Legislation Faculty. “However the repeal didn’t do something to treatment the hurt.”

Child steps for vets with ‘dangerous paper’

Till 1993, the navy prohibited homosexual and lesbian individuals from serving, and it went to nice lengths to persecute and prosecute those that tried. “Don’t ask, don’t inform,” launched beneath the Clinton administration, was purported to be a gentler strategy, permitting LGBTQ individuals to serve so long as their sexual orientation remained hidden.

Regardless of that promise, 1000’s of officers and enlisted service members had been discharged. Even when they lived a closeted life, typically they had been outed or unfairly hit with quite a few allegations of misconduct. In 2010, President Obama signed the repeal of the coverage, erasing sexual orientation as a barrier to navy service.

For the reason that repeal, the Protection and Veterans Affairs departments have taken steps to rectify the navy’s discriminatory previous. However these efforts don’t robotically erase “lower than honorable discharges” stemming from sexual orientation.

Subsequent week, VA will start contemplating appeals from veterans with “dangerous paper” — one other time period for “lower than honorable” discharges — who can present “compelling circumstances” — similar to harassment, navy sexual trauma, discrimination, psychological well being struggles — which will have led to their compelled exit.

Whereas VA lauds the change as a win for LGBTQ service members and different veterans with checkered pasts, advocates say it nonetheless falls quick.

“It’s a small change,” says Renee Burbank, director of litigation on the Nationwide Veterans Authorized Companies Program. “It’s not a wide-scale main overhauling of the system.”

For McGuire, the shift doesn’t assist as a result of anybody who was court-martialed or accepted a discharge “in lieu of a basic court-martial” doesn’t qualify. That would shut out untold 1000’s of veterans who nonetheless carry the scar of discharges over their sexual orientation.

What number of veterans fall into that class is unclear. The Military, Navy, Marines, Air Drive, and Coast Guard have all delayed responding or denied a Freedom of Data Act request by The Warfare Horse for court-martial data related to circumstances of service members prosecuted for sodomy, conduct unbecoming, and indecent acts.

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed final summer season, calling on the Division of Protection to improve lower than honorable discharges for veterans who had been the topic of discrimination, mentioned at the least 35,800 veterans had been thrown out of the navy since 1980 “due to actual or perceived homosexuality, gay conduct, sexual perversion, or every other associated motive.”

Within the wake of the lawsuit, the Pentagon introduced it will look at the data of veterans discharged beneath “don’t ask, don’t inform” and probably assist pursue upgrades. However no replace or timeline has been given.

The opening line of the category motion lawsuit summed up the injustice by quoting a line etched on a Vietnam Warfare veteran’s headstone within the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

“Once I was within the navy they gave me a medal for killing two males and a discharge for loving one.”

Fearful ‘somebody would inform on us’

There was nothing equal concerning the remedy and punishment LGBTQ service members endured over time, mentioned Montalto, who has represented them for greater than a decade. Commanding officers may determine to quietly push out a homosexual soldier with an honorable discharge, or, like within the case of McGuire, make an aggressive present of it.

McGuire, who grew up within the small city of Mineola in jap Texas, enlisted within the Military in 1987 to really feel near her father, a person she “worshiped.” He died of lung most cancers when she was solely seven, and she or he vowed to grow to be a navy police officer, simply as he had been throughout World Warfare II.

The Military proved a fantastic match. “I used to be in heaven,” McGuire says. “I beloved the exercise. I beloved the rigor. I beloved the self-discipline. It was my world.” She’d make a profession within the Military, she determined.

Stationed with the 164th Army Police Firm in West Germany, she met a fellow younger soldier from Wisconsin, Karla Lehmann. McGuire remembers Lehmann was bubbly; Lehmann remembers McGuire was a flirt.

“I didn’t know I used to be homosexual at that time,” Lehmann says. “We began hanging out.”

They usually lived in worry.

“We had been frightened somebody within the unit would inform on us,” Lehmann remembers.

The 2 — who’re nonetheless pals in the present day — would later study that’s precisely what occurred.

Dragged from their barracks on that morning in Might 1988, Lehmann, McGuire and two different feminine troopers had been interrogated individually. At first, they refused to reply deeply private questions. When threatened with a court-martial and imprisonment, they confessed.

Lehmann remembers at one level being escorted to the toilet and seeing McGuire, who was seated on a bench, crying. They checked out each other and knew instantly.

Their navy service was over.

‘I remorse to tell you …”

Greater than three a long time later, with an LGBTQ-friendly Democrat within the White Home and same-sex marriage the legislation of the land, McGuire felt prefer it was time to attraction to the Military to take away the stain from her navy report.

So in 2022, she got down to improve her discharge. The exact phrases that continued to shame her for many years had been written on her exit paperwork beneath motive for separation: “for the great of the service in lieu of court-martial.”

Not many veterans have jumped on the probability to improve their discharges because the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t inform.” Statistics saved by the Division of Protection present that solely about 1,600 veterans had utilized as of March 2023. Most of them succeeded.

McGuire stuffed out the kinds on her personal, describing how she sank into melancholy after her discharge, and the way she beloved her nation and wished greater than something to serve and defend. She detailed the honorable life she’s lived since, working at a printing firm because the early ‘90s and elevating two athletic, good boys along with her spouse of greater than 30 years.

She thought she had probability. Greater than 10 years earlier, the Division of Protection had issued a memo guiding boards of assessment to grant improve requests if the discharge was based mostly solely on anti-LGBTQ coverage and there have been no different aggravating expenses.

However in August 2023, a letter from the Division of the Military arrived: “I remorse to tell you that the Military Board for Correction of Army Data denied your utility.”

The eight-page denial pressured that McGuire had admitted guilt, requested her discharge over court-martial, and failed to supply compelling proof that she suffered from melancholy following her discharge.

When The Warfare Horse reached out to the Military board with questions on McGuire’s denial, it failed to reply.

Christie Bhageloe,  an lawyer with the professional bono The Veterans Consortium, mentioned the denial this present day made no sense.

“As a result of should you have a look at her report, they’re all expenses for simply being homosexual. That’s it,” mentioned Bhageloe, who’s working with McGuire to attraction the choice. “The truth that [the board] didn’t even make that effort actually worries me since you shouldn’t want a lawyer to do that.”

VA advantages to maintain troops in line

Bhageloe and different attorneys hoped life would get simpler beneath the brand new VA guidelines for LGBTQ veterans making an attempt to clear their names.

However again in 2020, when VA introduced it was planning to permit extra veterans with “dangerous paper” to use for advantages, the Division of Protection raised considerations.

In an April 2024 letter, Ashish Vazirini, the undersecretary of protection for personnel and readiness, wrote to VA Secretary Denis McDonough urging VA to maintain obstacles in place, partially as a result of the lure of future VA advantages, he argued, maintain service members in line.

A refrain of considerations from advocates, attorneys, and members of Congress all identified that the Division of Protection and VA are completely separate entities. DOD’s focus is mission readiness, whereas VA exists to care for many who stepped as much as serve.

Even so, VA adopted lots of Vazirini’s suggestions.

“It hurts veterans and cuts towards their (VA’s) mission to permit the Division of Protection to primarily preempt what they’re making an attempt to do,” mentioned Rose Carmen Goldberg, a veterans legislation professional at Stanford Legislation Faculty. “I feel there’s an actual battle there.”

In an announcement, a VA spokesperson, Gary Kunich, informed The Warfare Horse that the company continues to handle ongoing points that LGBTQ veterans face “because of the navy’s decades-long official coverage of homophobia and transphobia.” Kunich mentioned he couldn’t touch upon McGuire’s case particularly however acknowledged that beneath the up to date rule, veterans discharged “in lieu of court-martial” may nonetheless face obstacles in the event that they apply for VA advantages.

Goldberg and different advocates agree that sure infractions, similar to going AWOL for six months, rightly disqualify veterans from accessing lifelong advantages. However there’s concern that even the brand new guidelines that give veterans an opportunity to elucidate circumstances round their “lower than honorable” dismissals can result in biased outcomes.

“Lots of these VA adjudicators themselves are veterans,” mentioned Mo Siedor, an lawyer with Swords to Plowshares, a nonprofit veterans service group, “they usually’re like, ‘Nicely, I obtained out with an ‘honorable.’ Why didn’t you?”

The bombshell Fb message

For 30 years, McGuire, Lehmann, and the opposite two ladies of their group have questioned who was behind the tip that led to their shame.

All of the sudden, on Jan. 18, 2018, they obtained a solution.

McGuire acquired a textual content message from Lehmann. It was a screenshot of a Fb message from a lady in McGuire’s platoon all these years in the past. The message was initially despatched to a lieutenant who was among the many group of troopers compelled out of the navy for being homosexual.

“I simply wished to say how sorry I’m!!!” the message mentioned. “I had a reasonably sheltered life rising up. I used to be by no means round ppl [sic] of a distinct race or gays or lesbians. … I’ve all the time wished to seek out you guys and apologize for ruining your navy profession.”

The lady went on to say that she was not “100% lesbian” herself, however recognized as “bi.”

McGuire was shocked, damage, and fuming. “It’s not an apology,” she says.

Lehmann, although, is usually at peace with how her navy profession ended. She doesn’t want VA advantages, and she or he’s proud that regardless of the stain on her report, the Milwaukee Police Division employed her, and she or he retired as an officer after 25 years. She now works as a forensic interviewer and says the best way the navy handled her “made me a a lot better officer, and made me very considerate about once I was arresting individuals.”

Nonetheless, Lehmann says, she will be able to’t shake how ironic it’s that earlier than being discharged, she and McGuire had been incessantly harassed by males. Lehmann’s sergeant prompt she come to his room, handing her his room key. McGuire twice found bare males ready in her mattress. Males would climb by means of their barracks home windows.

“But, we had been being arrested for sodomy and indecent acts,” Lehmann says.

McGuire, in the meantime, longs for justice. Her lawyer, Bhageloe, is interesting her denial for a discharge improve and asking that McGuire, who spent solely 11 months within the Military, be granted two years of service in order that she’s eligible for VA advantages.

“That’s a giant ask,” Bhageloe acknowledges, “but it surely was a giant deal that her navy service ended early, actually by means of no fault of [her] personal.”

Recently, McGuire has had desires that she’s reenlisted within the Military. It’s a thrill to seek out herself lacing up fight boots and going by means of primary.

Typically, within the dream, somebody will ask: “Why are you again?” In her actual life, she mentioned, she’s not allowed on navy grounds.

When she closes her eyes, although, she settles proper in, as if it’s the months earlier than her arrest. She remembers it as “the most effective time of my life,” till that early morning in Might when she was woke up by the pounding on the door.

This Warfare Horse investigation was reported by Anne Marshall-Chalmers, edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Abbie Bennett wrote the headlines.