Joe Biden has moved to correct a “great injustice” by pardoning thousands of US veterans convicted over six decades under a military law that banned gay sex.
The presidential proclamation, which comes during Pride month and an election year, allows LGBTQ+ service members convicted of crimes based solely on their sexual orientation to apply for a certificate of pardon that will help them receive withheld benefits.
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It grants clemency to service members convicted under Uniform Code of Military Justice article 125 – which criminalised sodomy, including between consenting adults – between 1951 and 2013, when it was rewritten by Congress.
That includes victims of the 1950s “lavender scare”, a witch-hunt in which many LGBTQ+ people employed by the federal government were viewed as security risks amid fears their sexual orientation made them vulnerable to blackmail. Thousands were investigated and fired or denied employment.
There have been good things throughout Biden’s entire term. They just get overshadowed by the barrage of news about the bad.
Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, revoked the Keystone Pipeline permit, created a 13 million acre federal petroleum reserve for Alaskan wildlife, greatly increased oil site lease cost, signed $7B in solar subsidies, enacted the Inflation Reduction act to support clean energy, leveraged the NLRB for an FTC ruling that eliminated non-compete agreements, capped credit card late fees, reduced or outlawed junk fees in several industries, forgave billions in student debt from predatory loans, created the CHIPS Act to improve reliance on domestic technology, reenacted Net Neutrality, repealed Title 42, ended the Muslim Ban, reinstated the law prohibiting Israeli settlement on Palestinian territory, signed the Equality Act for LGBTQ+ rights, restored gay rights to beneficiaries, reenacted trans care anti-discrimination law, signed the Respect for Marriage Act, enabled unspecified gender on US Passports, pardoned thousands of gay veterans from being convicted based on their sexual orientation, rejoined WHO, rescheduled marijuana, banned medical debt from credit reports, actively reducing drug costs with the American Rescue Plan Act…
Just one thing. He only technically ended title 42 immigration restrictions. Effectively he continued Trump’s policies with his own, slightly different policy.
He repealed the Muslim ban on March 6, 2021. He overturned Title 42 on May 11, 2023. There were no Presidential border restrictions in place until recently. He spent that time pressing Congress to pass immigration reform and they failed. With sanctuary cities over capacity, and no federal funding, he needed to begin to restrict entry again.
Oh how I wish you were right.
13 May 2023, Guardian, “Title 42 migration restrictions have ended, but Biden’s new policy is tougher”
The upshot is they have to stay in the dangerous country and get approval via an app (that of course has trouble with facial recognition for BIPOC people) and a consulate visit before traveling. This is because if they go to another country for this process the government claims they found a safe country already.
And sanctuary cities are not “over capacity” nor are they even an official thing. The federal government does not recognize them. It’s a local decision to not cooperate with ICE. The entire idea that the country has a “capacity” is far right bullshit that goes straight back to 1800’s immigrant bashing.
Edit to add-
I especially love this bit, where we cap the number of people from infamously failed and violent countries. And require them to have a connect. Is having a president who doesn’t get sued by the ACLU for immigration too much to ask?
i was also going to point out biden’s 100% tariffs on electric vehicles contradicts climate initiatives; supporting trump’s immigration policies (as you just did); etc. and i want to say it’s nice to hear someone else splash a dose of reality into the conversation.
The only way I could get behind his Chinese tariffs is if he unleashed a DARPA moonshot on batteries and open sourced the resulting technology. But no he dived straight for protectionism and letting the traditional companies sell us cars at double the size and triple the price the market should be at.
So you think we should be in full support of trade with China? Even with their ongoing genocide, threats to the Philippines and Thailand, and active surveillance systems in the US?
I gave a legal and internationally safe alternative and you went straight to, “full support of China”. Come on dude. At least try and engage in good faith.
So here’s a couple ideas you might like better, I guess. We tell the CIA we want those specs; or we buy a hundred for a rip and rebuild and open source the results. Give them the Russian tank/plane treatment.
I wrote “full support of trade with China.” People are protesting for divestment from Israel over genocide in tents they bought from China. I’m just saying it’s hypocritical.
Thanks for sharing these. There has really been a bunch of good to come out of this administration. Much of it isn’t flashy stuff that gets talked about, but there is a lot that really should be important to a lot of people.
I think Biden has exceeded most expectations many of us had for him. There are always going to be things presidents do that we won’t agree with. Obama was also pretty crappy with immigrants, drone strikes, and a number of other things, but it seems we’re able to look back at his terms as a net positive. If Biden didn’t have to clean up after Trump and Covid, I think he could have been a very memorable president.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very pissed about Gaza and the border, but Gaza is a result of almost 100 years of bad policy of many parties, and the number of regular people still bitching about false immigration stories is pressuring all representatives to be harsh on that. We can only expect a president to do so much if a large swath of Congress and the people themselves are against something.
Gaza is absolutely indefensible. Immigration is very limited. He doesn’t have to power to allocate funding for immigrants. He left the border open for over a year while pressing Congress to do their job and pass immigration reform. Now sanctuary cities are over capacity, leaving many migrants homeless. The state funding has run out, and all Biden can control is law and border policy.
We have so much empty space in much of the country, I dont know why we can’t just build a few cities for them. I’m not sure the cost of these detention centers vs a functioning town, but if we gave them real housing, infrastructure, and gave them a place to work and earn income during their asylum or immigration process, it sounds much less cruel and more productive, and would treat them like human beings and get a start on building a life here.
We don’t even need to build new cities. We just need to let our cities increase density like all cities did for hundreds of years before the 50s. More multifamily buildings, midrise apartments, and mixed use buildings would go a long way towards helping everybody.
Besides, much of that land is either already owned by somebody or empty for a reason. It would be a logistical nightmare for sure. You could send them to all the dying towns in the US, but I don’t think that would help either - apart from the locals being rightfully angry about large groups of new people coming in and eroding their local culture, those towns are dying for a reason that runs much deeper than just people moving away.
Yes we absolutely need plenty of immigration. The American population has been below replacement on birth rates since the 1970s. With the Boomers going down it’s going to hit the fan real soon but all they want to do is restrict immigrants.
We absolutely could. We could also just supplement funding for sanctuary cities to purchase more vacant buildings for shelter. We could also tailor the 1986 immigration system to the very different needs of the migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers of today.
Unfortunately, that’s entirely up to our dysfunctional Congress.
It seems Biden likes to make things happen withiut making a big deal about it, because in a perfect world that sounds like a good thing. Just get stuff done!
But the Dems as a whole need to get better at messaging their victories so they get the credit, which I understand is hard when rage bait sells, but if nobody knows they can’t counter the conservative lies.
The 4th estate is a wholly owned subsidiary of fascist inc these days. And facts don’t sell. Just rage.
He tried to take victory laps. The problem is he tried to take one on the economy for several months in a row which led to people seeing him as disconnected and only working for the finance sector. His messaging has been absolute garbage this election cycle and if any one other than Trump was running we’d already be getting ready for the next Republican president.
Thank you for keeping track of this
why? no one’s on the fence so parroting this doesn’t convince anyone; so it only serves to alienate other leftists voters.
if your approval for biden’s track record only spans the last 3 years instead of all 51, then you’re going to vote for him anyways; meanwhile people who have been watching him for decades are reminded of his true colors in these parroting the transparently feels-good/does-nothing actions.
it’s toxic positivity.