GI Bill Benefits and DADT Discharges
Servicemembers must normally serve a minimum proportion of their service obligation in order to be eligible for GI Bill benefits; however, certain DADT discharges are eligible for a pro-rated GI Bill benefit, with one month of eligibility credit awarded for each month of service on active duty. If you're interested in some technical stuff about this, read the next paragraph; if not, skip the next paragraph.There are two types of DADT discharges - those for "homosexual admission" and those for "homosexual acts." Military commanders and even some JAG lawyers often do not know to distinguish between these two types of discharges, although the difference between the two seems obvious. The confusion is often due to the wording of the law (Public Law 103-160) and the wording of the statutory regulations that were constructed to implement that law by the Department of Defense. The law and the regs speak of "homosexual conduct," " homosexual admission," and "homosexual acts," with the latter two falling under the umbrella of the general term "homosexual conduct." "Admission" is considered "conduct" because of the assumption that one who admits homosexuality (or bisexuality) has a "propensity" or a predisposition to engage in homosexual conduct. "Acts," however, are considered different from "admissions" and the difference between the two follow logical definitional patterns. Many who try to interpret the law and regs, however, use "acts" interchangeably with "conduct." Since "admission" falls under "conduct," many mistakenly do not distinguish between "admission" and "acts" or assume that "admission" is considered an "act" just as it is considered "conduct." To the contrary, "admission" is not the same thing as "acts," and one who has only made a statement about his or her sexual orientation but has not been found to have committed "acts" should make sure that their DADT discharge is for "homosexual admission" as opposed to "homosexual acts."
Other than lexical precision and the fact that a "homosexual act" is technically a violation UCMJ (another good reason not to have your case erroneously characterized as such), the distinction is important because DADT discharges for "homosexual acts" are not eligible for a pro-rated GI Bill benefit if the servicemember has served less than 20 months (for servicemembers who have served out the required proportion of their enlistments to gain eligibility, neither discharge will disqualify them); DADT discharges for "homosexual admission," however, are usually eligible for a pro-rated benefit. For example, if you served on active duty for 9 months and were discharged for "homosexual admission," you would usually be eligible for 9 months of GI Bill entitlement, which would be worth nearly $10,000. This, of course, assumes that the servicemember paid into the GI Bill each month he or she was in the military (up to 12 months... you most likely did so unless you specifically opted out) and that an honorable discharge was awarded.
While some legal aid organizations have, in the past, advised clients who were discharged for "homosexual admission" that they were not eligible for the GI Bill benefit due to the benefit's normal time-in-service requirement, there are indeed exceptions to those time-in-service requirements which include an exception for "homosexual admission" discharges. Servicemembers United's staff and members have significant experience dealing with the VA and we have successfully assisted discharged servicemembers who had previously been told that they were ineligible for GI Bill benefits in obtaining those benefits. If you have questions about your eligibility for GI Bill benefits, even if you have been discharged under DADT, please email us at info@servicemembersunited.org.
