New data revealed the extent of the U.S. military's decades-long discrimination against gay and lesbian service members, showing that more than 29,000 people who were discharged due to their sexual orientation were denied honorable discharges.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Estimates have long suggested that approximately 14,000 service members were separated from the military under "don't ask, don't tell," the policy that banned gay men and women from serving openly from 1994 to 2011.
The new information, which CBS News received from Legal Aid At Work after making a Freedom of Information Act request, spans the three decades from 1980 to 2010, when the federal courts repealed the prohibition on gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
The data show that from October 1, 1980 to September 20, 2011, 35,801 people "received a discharge or separation because of real or perceived homosexuality, homosexual conduct, sexual perversion, or any other related reason." Of those cases, 81 percent resulted in general discharges that were not honorable discharges, bad conduct discharges, or dishonorable discharges.
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US Military Shows Different Numbers
The military has recently provided conflicting numbers, underscoring the long-standing uncertainty on the number of affected service members.
When CBS News contacted the Defense Department over the new data, authorities there presented alternative numbers from its Office of Legal Policy suggesting that between 1970 and 2011, the majority of service members who were separated due to homosexual behavior were dismissed under honorable terms.
The government provided a partial breakdown after being asked for more information: 23,392 honorable discharges, 11,023 general discharges under honorable conditions, and 5,374 uncharacterized discharges. Statistics on the harshest types of discharges were not included.
While the reasons for the disparity between the data from the Defense Department's Office of Legal Policy and that division's own Freedom of Information Division are unknown, experts said that it is not surprising.
Since the military itself lacks clarity and transparency, academics, activists, and lawmakers have argued over how to quantify and identify these people.
The research also revealed that the U.S. military has not taken any proactive steps to track down and reexamine instances in which service members were found guilty of crimes and given criminal records as a result of engaging in same-sex relationships.
While certain military rules explicitly forbade homosexual behavior, other laws were used as justifications to kick gay men and women out of the military, so these figures might only represent a small portion of the total toll.
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