Some therapists and doctors routinely report any non-heterosexuals that they find to their commanding officers for investigation. Many gays and lesbians who are the victims of harassment or assault often dare not report the incidents out of fear of being ejected from the military. This frequently makes them sitting ducks for homophobes who enjoy engaging in gay bashing.

1993-JUL-19: "Don't ask, don't tell policy (DADT):" President Clinton, faced with strong opposition from military leaders, broke his promise by introducing the DADT policy. He said that the policy would establish

1942: Separation policy: Previous to World War II, sexually active homosexuals could be prosecuted under the Articles of War. Starting in 1942 persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation -- even though celibate -- could alternately be given a "blue discharge" and separated from the armed forces. They would not be eligible for the Veterans Administration's G.I. Bill benefits.

President Barack Obama: End the ban on transgender people serving in the military.

The country’s single biggest employer of transgender Americans — the U.S. military — can legally discriminate against them,

This research is likely to be very useful in understanding the best ways to help military families, and the best directions to move in for future research.

The focus of the second section is the concept of working with gender-sensitive issues, as well as sexual-gender minority veterans, or veterans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT).

She promised not to forget the gay rights cause if elected, or treat LGBT support as a "political bargaining chip."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Saturday that military records be amended to upgrade dishonorable discharges imposed on gay, lesbian and transgender military veterans.

"They were given less than honorable discharges," Hillary Clinton said. "I can't think of a better way to thank those men and women for their service than by upgrading their service records."

A heterosexual Army Ranger, for instance, said that repealing “don't ask, don't tell” “didn’t affect cohesion... or how we interact, or force us to change any sort of accommodations for anyone.” Another straight solder said, “It was a nonevent, like driving over a flat road. You don’t even notice a ripple.”

In one survey, more than 750 active duty troops were asked three months after repeal about their morale, housing, perception of officer and troop quality, and overall quality of life—factors considered key components of military readiness.

During the debate over “don’t ask, don’t tell”—which ended one year ago this week—Sen. John McCain insisted that ending the gay ban would do “great damage” to the military, and the commandant of the Marine Corps said it could “cost Marines’ lives.”

The policy before that didn’t just affect them - it affected their friends, too, because officially anyone who knew had a duty to inform on them to the service police.

Incidents of aggression against gay personnel are still reported. In 2013 it was reported that soldier James Wharton was threatened with beatings from servicemen in a rival regiment before Prince Harry stepped into defend him, while in 2009 the MoD was forced to pay £124,000 to a lesbian soldier for harassment she suffered in the Royal Artillery.

As a result, LGBT service members are not a protected class under the military’s Equal Opportunity policy, which protects service members from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, and religion, and creates a clear pathway for recourse outside of the chain of command.

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was a monumental piece of legislation for our military and for gay and lesbian service members, but the bill did not firmly put an end to discrimination for LGBT members of our military.

Until this summer, the Defense of Marriage Act prevented the military from extending benefits programs to the same-sex spouses of service members and veterans. As a result, same-sex spouses were denied nearly 100 military benefits that were freely available to different-sex spouses, including health care, housing allowances, and survivor benefits.

The mission for full equality in the military is incomplete.

So today, sexual orientation is no longer grounds for dismissal from the military, and the federal government—including the Department of Defense—now recognizes same-sex spouses for the purpose of federal benefits. However, the repeal of DADT and the Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA do not mean the end of discrimination for the LGBT Americans who serve in our nation’s military

As recently as three years ago, gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans in the armed forces were forced to keep their sexuality a secret or risk being discharged—a risk that would become a certainty if attempting to marry a person of the same sex.

But society had moved on. Congress and the Pentagon ultimately decided openly gay men and women could serve, beginning in 2011

In 2010 General James Amos, the Marine commandant, worried that openly gay men and women in uniform would be a distraction that could get Marines killed. “Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines lives,” he said. “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction.”

A decade later, the growing acceptance of gay men and women in U.S. society led to a new push by President Obama to end the ban.

In some ways “don’t ask, don’t tell,” by locking gays into the closet, only complicated their lives

It’s hard to overstate how far this debate has come since presidential candidate Bill Clinton declared in 1992 that openly gay men and women should be permitted to serve in uniform.