500 signatures reached
To: President Biden
Approve Pardons for Steve Marose and All Eligible LGBTQIA+ Veterans!
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In June 2024, President Biden announced pardons for LGBTQIA+ veterans who were wrongfully discharged for violating Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that banned “same-sex relationships” and was repealed for being discriminatory back in 2013.
Thousands of individuals could be eligible, but so far only eight veterans have applied for pardons. The 26-page application to apply for the pardons is long and cumbersome. And those who applied are still waiting for their application to be approved.
Steve Marose is one of those applicants.
The former Air Force officer was punished in the 1990s—simply for being gay. He spent 18 months in prison and his conviction follows him to this day. He has been waiting months for his pardon.
Urge President Biden to expedite pardons for Steve Marose and all other eligible LGBTQIA+ veterans before Donald Trump takes office!
Why is this important?
Individuals should be free to love whom they love and explore consensual relationships freely, without persecution by the government.
It’s a stain on U.S. history that military members were outed, harassed, and prosecuted simply for their sexual orientation.
Steve Marose was a gay Air Force officer training in Louisiana in 1990. HIs home was ransacked looking for evidence of his sexuality. Military investigators threatened him with up to 17 years in prison—so he pled guilty to three counts of “consensual sodomy” and two counts of “conduct unbecoming an officer,” serving 18 months in prison.
He is just one of thousands of people who were unjustly targeted and prosecuted for their sexuality or gender.
President Biden expressed a commitment to righting this historical wrong when he announced his pardon for all veterans wrongfully convicted and discharged over their sexuality or gender identity. But the burdensome process has overshadowed that action, and time is running out for him to make good on his promise. The military has records of the thousands of service members who were impacted by this discrimination and could help speed up the process. It shouldn't take this long or be this difficult.
Donald Trump during his first term was hostile to transgender military members—and is likely to reinstate his problematic trans military ban and expand it. We know that the individuals promised pardons under the Biden administration will not be supported by the next administration.
We need President Biden and the Department of Defense to act swiftly to remove the barriers and approve pardons for Steve Marose and all other eligible LGBTQIA+ veterans.