California Family Minute

Lockstep with Activists – Expanding Veterans’ Benefits

by Rebecca Burgoyne, 
CFC Research Analyst

A year ago, marching lockstep with homosexual activists and just prior to the House majority going conservative, Congress rushed through a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) military policy. Signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, DADT had allowed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) military personnel to serve in the armed forces only if they kept their sexual orientation quiet. Last year the Pentagon, sprinting into unknown territory, carried out the agenda of President Barack Obama and congressional elite. After months of “sensitivity training,” the long-standing policy – under which LGBT soldiers, sailors, and marines were dishonorably discharged – became history in September. 

On the eve of Veteran’s Day last week, Assemblyman Richard Pan announced that – when the California Legislature reconvenes in January – he will introduce legislation making an estimated 3,000 California veterans, who were dishonorably discharged under DADT, eligible for any state veteran benefits. These benefits may include tuition fee waivers, home-loan eligibility, property tax exemptions, burial in a veterans cemetery, free or reduced fees for license plates, and reductions or waiversforbusiness and recreational passes and licenses.

The demise of DADT, which forced a volatile pro-homosexual agenda on our military, is already showing the strains of imposing homosexuality into the public. Religious and personal liberties of chaplains and servicemen who oppose homosexuality on religious or moral grounds are being limited in the name of tolerance. The military will lose more than a few good men. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Georgia), who serves on the congressional Military Personnel Subcommittee, told the Stars and Stripes last spring that several of his constituents had already promised not to re-enlist. “You are going to lose,” said Scott, “and this country is going to lose a lot of very, very valuable members of our military because of this social policy.”