“We are thrilled that the Biden Administration has taken this long-overdue corrective action to right an historic wrong and to restore to LGBTQ+ veterans the honor for their service that should never have been denied.”
President Biden today announced the pardon of more than 2,000 veterans of the U.S. military who were convicted under a discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ military code that outlawed consensual sex relations between same-sex service members for more than 60 years. Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings issued the following statement.
“From representing Technical Sgt. Leonard Matlovich and Ensign “Copy” Berg in the 1970’s to representing Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer in the 1990’s, Lambda Legal and its lawyers have been at the forefront of the battle to end anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the U.S. military since our beginning. We are thrilled that the Biden Administration has taken this long-overdue corrective action to right an historic wrong and to restore to LGBTQ+ veterans the honor for their service that should never have been denied.”
Lambda Legal’s fight against discrimination in the military extends back to 1975 and includes its successful representation of Col. (Ret.) Margarethe Cammermeyer, its long fight against the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and its recent successful representation of transgender service members and transgender people looking to enlist targeted by the Trump administration.
Lambda Legal won its first case against antigay discrimination by the military in 1975, when the organization represented Ensign Vernon (Copy) Berg III. Berg was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and an admiral’s aide in Italy when he was anonymously outed and then discharged. In 1979, the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. found that the Navy rules on homosexuality were too vague. Under pressure from the Carter White House, the Defense Department entered into a settlement. Fifteen years later, Lambda Legal won a federal court ruling that the prior ban on gays in the military was unconstitutional, resulting in the reinstatement of Col. (Ret.) Margarethe Cammermeyer, a 27-year service member and Vietnam veteran.
Read about our representation of Col. Cammermeyer here: https://legacy.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/cammermeyer-v-us-army
Read about our fight against the proposed transgender service ban here: https://lambdalegal.org/case/karnoski-v-trump/
Read about our fight against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell here: https://legacy.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/witt-v-usaf