President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would pardon military personnel who were convicted under a law banning homosexuality in the armed forces, describing it as “righting a historic wrong.”
In a statement, Biden acknowledged the discrimination faced by LGBTQI+ service members who were discharged due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, often facing court-martial and enduring decades of injustice.
The decision targets Article 125 of the Code of Military Justice, enacted in 1951 and rendered obsolete by Congress in 2013, which criminalized sodomy between consenting adults with court-martial penalties. According to AFP, a senior US official indicated that thousands could potentially benefit from the pardons, which include amending military records to potentially grant access to benefits previously denied.