Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (VA) and Tammy Baldwin (WI) are leading a resolution to apologize to LGBTQ+ government employees for “mistreatment.”
According to a press release from Kaine’s office, the United States has a “long, disturbing history of discrimination” against people who are LGBTQ+. The press release noted that this began in the 1940s and continued through the 1990s (via Kaine.Senate.gov):
At least 100,000 LGBT military service members were forced out of the Armed Forces between World War II and 2011, most recently due to the 1994-2011 ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, which prohibited servicemembers from disclosing their sexual orientation.
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In 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13672, officially prohibiting the federal government and federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2023, the Department of Defense announced that it would undertake a proactive review of the service records of individuals discharged due to their sexual orientation to assess whether to grant them discharge upgrades. While these are significant steps in the right direction, we still have more work to do to ameliorate the harm done by decades of discriminatory policies.
“LGBT civil servants, foreign service officers and servicemembers have made countless sacrifices and contributions to our country and national security. Despite this, our government has subjected them to decades of harassment, invasive investigations and wrongful termination because of who they are or who they love,” Kaine said in a statement.
“This Pride Month, I’m proud to lead this resolution alongside Senator Baldwin to reaffirm our commitment to righting our past wrongs and fighting for equality for all LGBT Americans,” he added.
“Anyone who serves our country, whether they are in uniform or a civil servant, deserves to be treated with respect, fairness, and dignity, regardless of who they are or who they love,” Baldwin, who is the first “openly LGBTQ” person elected to the Senate, said of the resolution on Tuesday. “I am proud to lead this effort to show our commitment to creating a more accepting, equal country that lives up to our nation’s ideals.”
The resolution is cosponsored by a slew of Democrats, including Sens. Chris Coons (DE), Jeff Merkley (OR), John Fetterman (PA), Patty Murray (WA), Brian Schatz (HI), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Bob Casey (PA), Dick Durbin (IL), Edward Markey (MA), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Ben Cardin (MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Michael Bennet (CO), Ron Wyden (OR), Sherrod Brown (OH), and Mark R. Warner (VA).