Text of US SR 408 (2025)

III 119TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. RES. 408 Recognizing September 20, 2025, as ‘‘National LGBTQ+ Servicemembers and Veterans Day’’. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 18 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 16), 2025 Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. BENNET, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. FETTERMAN, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. LUJA´N, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SMITH, Ms. WARREN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. BOOKER, and Mr. DURBIN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs RESOLUTION Recognizing September 20, 2025, as ‘‘National LGBTQ+ Servicemembers and Veterans Day’’. Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (re- ferred to in this preamble as ‘‘LGBTQ+’’) servicemembers and veterans have honorably served in the Armed Forces in every war to which the United States was a party, beginning with the Revolutionary War; Whereas LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans have served in the Armed Forces despite discriminatory policies based on who they love or how they identify; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •SRES 408 IS Whereas, on April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisen- hower signed Executive Order 10450 (18 Fed. Reg. 2489; relating to security requirements for Government employment), which declared ‘‘sexual perversion’’ and ‘‘treatment for serious mental or neurological disorders’’ to be security risks and grounds for denying Federal em- ployment; Whereas Executive Order 10450, eventually repealed by President Barack Obama in 2017, contributed to the ‘‘Lavender Scare’’ of the 1950s by banning gay and les- bian people from working in the Government, including in the Armed Forces, and was similarly applied to transgender people as early as 1960; Whereas, beginning in 1963, Army medical standards dis- qualified people with ‘‘behavioral disorders’’, which was defined to include transgender people, from service in the Army; Whereas, for 30 years, beginning in the mid-1980s, Depart- ment of Defense regulations declared transgender people to be both physically and mentally disordered and abnor- mal and continued to disqualify transgender people from military service; Whereas, in 1982, the Department of Defense implemented a policy stating that ‘‘homosexuality is incompatible with military service’’, and between 1980 and 1990, an aver- age of 1,500 military servicemembers were discharged every year on the basis of their sexual orientation; Whereas, in 1993, as part of the National Defense Authoriza- tion Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (Public Law 103–160; 107 Stat. 1547), Congress enacted the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy, which declared that the presence of gay, les- VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 •SRES 408 IS bian, and bisexual people in the Armed Forces was an ‘‘unacceptable risk’’ to morale, good order, discipline, and unit cohesion, and required the Armed Forces to dis- charge servicemembers who— (1) engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited ‘‘homosexual acts’’; (2) stated that they were homosexual or bisexual; or (3) married or attempted to marry a same-sex part- ner; Whereas the Department of Defense has acknowledged that 13,472 personnel were discharged from the Armed Forces under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy, and an additional 19,365 personnel were discharged between 1980 and 1993 under similar policies that targeted servicemembers based on sexual orientation; Whereas the White House estimates that more than 100,000 servicemembers have been discharged from the Armed Forces for their sexual orientation or gender identity; Whereas, on September 20, 2011, the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy was officially repealed, 60 days after Presi- dent Barack Obama approved its repeal on July 22, 2011, by signing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (10 U.S.C. 654 note; Public Law 111–321); Whereas, on June 30, 2016, the Department of Defense an- nounced an end to the ban on transgender servicemembers across all components of the Department of Defense; Whereas, on July 26, 2017, President Donald J. Trump an- nounced that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 •SRES 408 IS Whereas, on January 25, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden signed Executive Order 14004 (86 Fed. Reg. 7471; relat- ing to enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform), which repealed the 2017 ban on transgender military servicemembers; Whereas the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have taken steps to address the harms done to LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans under these discriminatory policies; Whereas, in March 2021, the Secretary of Defense an- nounced new policies to undo the President Trump-era rules banning transgender people from serving in the military; Whereas those policies included a statement that the Defense Health Agency would develop clinical practice guidelines to support the medical treatment of servicemembers with gender dysphoria, a step that has not yet been completed; Whereas, on June 19, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans Af- fairs announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs would remove the exclusion of gender-affirming surgery from the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits package, but the Department of Veterans Affairs has yet to fulfill that promise; Whereas, on September 20, 2021, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs issued the ‘‘Benefits Eligibility for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Former Service Members (VIEWS 5810856)’’ memorandum de- tailing how certain former servicemembers discharged under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy with ‘‘other than honorable’’ discharges could begin to access full vet- erans benefits; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5 •SRES 408 IS Whereas, on September 20, 2023, the Deputy Secretary of Defense announced that the Department of Defense would proactively review the military records of certain veterans discharged under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy to identify those who may be eligible for discharge upgrades; Whereas, on April 25, 2024, the Department of Veterans Af- fairs posted a final rule eliminating the regulatory bar for ‘‘homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or other factors affecting the performance of duty’’ as an obstacle to benefits, which could help reduce the disparity that LGBTQ+ veterans face in applying for their bene- fits; Whereas, on June 26, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden par- doned veterans who had been convicted in military courts for consensual sodomy between 1951 and 2013 under former article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Jus- tice; Whereas, on January 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14183 (90 Fed. Reg. 8757; relat- ing to prioritizing military excellence and readiness), which reinstated the ban on transgender servicemembers and directed the Department of Defense to end its usage of pronouns and prevent transgender people from using facilities that align with their gender identity; Whereas, on February 7, 2025, the Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum halting all gender-affirming med- ical procedures for servicemembers; Whereas, on February 26, 2025, the Department of Defense announced that transgender and nonbinary servicemembers are ‘‘no longer eligible for military serv- VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6 •SRES 408 IS ice’’ and ‘‘will be processed for separation from military service’’; Whereas, on March 17, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it will no longer offer gender-af- firming hormone therapy to veterans who were not al- ready receiving such care; and Whereas challenges still exist for LGBTQ+ servicemembers and veterans seeking equitable treatment in service and access to benefits: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate— 1 (1) recognizes September 20, 2025, as ‘‘Na- 2 tional LGBTQ+ Servicemembers and Veterans 3 Day’’; 4 (2) celebrates the contributions of lesbian, gay, 5 bisexual, transgender, and queer (referred to in this 6 resolution as ‘‘LGBTQ+’’) servicemembers and vet- 7 erans who have served in the Armed Forces; 8 (3) regrets the harm done to LGBTQ+ 9 servicemembers and veterans under the ‘‘Don’t Ask, 10 Don’t Tell’’ policy and earlier policies, bans on 11 transgender servicemembers, and other policies that 12 discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender 13 identity; 14 (4) recognizes how ‘‘other than honorable’’ and 15 ‘‘dishonorable’’ discharges given to LGBTQ+ 16 servicemembers on the basis of sexual orientation 17 and gender identity— 18 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7 •SRES 408 IS (A) prematurely terminated the careers of 1 LGBTQ+ servicemembers in the Armed 2 Forces; 3 (B) subjected LGBTQ+ servicemembers to 4 the trauma of investigations and criminal 5 charges; 6 (C) unfairly denied LGBTQ+ 7 servicemembers the honor associated with mili- 8 tary service; 9 (D) deprived LGBTQ+ servicemembers of 10 benefits those servicemembers have earned and 11 deserve as veterans; and 12 (E) continue to cause LGBTQ+ 13 servicemembers dignitary harm; 14 (5) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 15 and the Department of Defense— 16 (A) to implement policy changes that re- 17 store justice and right wrongs caused by past 18 and present government-sponsored discrimina- 19 tion; and 20 (B) to conduct further outreach to 21 LGBTQ+ service member and veteran commu- 22 nities to ensure that those discharged based on 23 their sexual orientation and gender identity can 24 receive their benefits; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8 •SRES 408 IS (6) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 1 and the Department of Defense to ensure that 2 transgender veterans and servicemembers and their 3 families have access to the full range of health care, 4 including gender-affirming care; and 5 (7) urges the Department of Veterans Affairs 6 to remove the exclusion of gender-affirming surgery 7 from the Veterans Affairs Medical Benefits Package. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Sep 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR408.IS SR408 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS