This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter.

The email came while James Harter was on vacation with his husband in Quebec City, Canada. He was checking his computer in their RV when he read the no-nonsense subject line: Certificate of Pardon.

He had no idea just how uncommon that email was — but in the moment, none of that mattered. 

“The feelings were basically overjoyed relief,” he told The War Horse. “Just the sense of, maybe I could put what happened to me in my past.” 

Nearly 40 years ago, Harter was court-martialed for having consensual sex with another man in his unit. He was convicted under the former Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 125, which forbade sodomy, defined as “unnatural carnal copulation,” and sentenced to a bad conduct discharge from the Army plus six months in two military correctional facilities: one in Germany and one in Kansas. He spent most of his time in isolation, on suicide watch. 

“I just couldn’t understand how I’d gotten to this point,” he said, “where I was in prison with murderers because I had sex with someone.” 

Last year, however, he finally got a chance at redemption when President Joe Biden issued a proclamation to grant a full and unconditional pardon to veterans with court-martial convictions under former Article 125. Harter applied right away. 

Receiving the pardon on that early fall day, Harter said, “restored a lot of pride.”

Only now does he understand just how unique he is to have received an Article 125 pardon. 

More people have walked on the moon. 

Documents obtained by The War Horse through Freedom of Information Act requests show that of the tens of thousands of veterans who were separated from the military due to their sexuality over decades, only 21 ended up applying for a pardon — and only four, including Harter, have received one.

The numbers sharply contrast the White House’s estimate that “thousands” of veterans could be eligible when Biden announced a year ago that he was “righting a historic wrong.” So much has changed since then.

Both Biden and President Donald Trump have faced intense criticism for handing out pardons to family members, political allies and even members of the military who refused COVID-19 protocols. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have been erased under the new administration’s zeal to refocus the military on lethality. Thousands of transgender service members are being discharged and banned from serving. And the Pentagon is considering renaming ships, including the USNS Harvey Milk, named for the slain gay rights activist and veteran who was discharged over his sexuality, among other ships that don’t fit a “warrior” ethos. 

While The War Horse had previously reported on the low number of pardon applications for LGBTQ+ veterans, records disclosed last month by the Office of the U.S. Pardon Attorney are the first to reveal just how few have been granted: two from the Navy, one from the Air Force, and one from the Army.

The records provided no other details and don’t explain why other applicants were denied. Harter is the only one of the pardoned veterans who has come forward to share his story.

“I never expected to be pardoned,” he said. “But I don’t think [the court-martial] should have ever happened to start with, so I felt like there was some redemption there.” 

A paltry promise? 

After the initial excitement over Biden’s Article 125 pardon announcement, it soon became clear to LGBTQ+ veteran advocates that many waiting for relief would be left out.  

The pardon’s wording meant that it only applied to veterans who were court-martialed for violations of Article 125, or consensual sodomy, said Dana Montalto, associate director of the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

“But there were so many other ways that [LGBTQ+] service members were separated or their behaviors criminalized when they were in service, and the pardon didn’t reach those,” Montalto said.

“I think it is a step in the right direction for our federal government to be making amends, but it certainly was not a solution to the problem,” she said.

LGBTQ+ veterans were often outed by fellow service members or caught up in military witch hunts. 

“Additional charges were often weaponized against service members, whether they were true or not,” said Cathy Marcello, deputy director at the Modern Military Association of America, an organization of LGBTQ+ service members. “Circumstances might look very bad on paper, but might not reflect what actually is historically accurate to this person’s conviction.” 

LGBTQ+ veterans were also regularly charged with Article 134 (indecent conduct or adultery), Article 92 (failure to obey a direct order) and other transgressions. Any of these additional offenses would make a veteran ineligible for Biden’s pardon. 

Last year, The War Horse submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Defense Department memos or reports to understand why the White House suggested thousands of veterans would benefit from Biden’s pardon. The agency denied the request, however, saying the documents were part of the decision-making process and therefore protected.

In May, The War Horse once again tried to contact the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the Department of Justice for comment on this issue and received no response. 

Advocates say there is another major reason for the low numbers: The burden is entirely on the veteran to apply for clemency and prove that they qualify. Unlike some mass pardons, Biden’s action requires that each veteran fill out a form, which could be daunting or bring up painful emotions. 

Peter Perkowski, the legal director at Minority Veterans of America, said the administration could have made the process easier.

“They could have put the onus on the Defense Department to review all the [Article] 125 convictions and change them if it’s appropriate,” he said, “or they could have sent letters out to people at their last known address.” Ultimately, he said, “There were a lot of things they could have done. They did none of it.” 

Different treatment for COVID vaccine refusers 

Earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order granting reinstatement eligibility, plus back pay, for more than 8,700 service members discharged solely for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast to the LGBTQ+ veterans, the Department of Defense stipulated that all eligible former service members discharged over COVID vaccines should be contacted by mail, email (if possible), and phone and invited to apply for reinstatement. And in May, the president pardoned a former Army officer who was court-martialed for refusing to obey COVID-19 safety rules.  

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from The War Horse. 

Perkowski can’t help but feel there is some bigotry at play. “There has been such a swift restorative justice action from the government to purportedly fix the mistakes the Defense Department made with COVID-related discharges,” he said. “Even though ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was repealed 15 years ago, that has never happened for this community.” 

And pardons don’t automatically change a veteran’s discharge status, said Christie Bhageloe, director of Statewide Veterans Project at Florida Legal Services. Even if a veteran gets pardoned, they still have to apply for a discharge upgrade to be eligible for VA and other benefits. The pardon — and a recent class action lawsuit win — may help, but it isn’t a guarantee. And unlike with the COVID-19 executive order, there are no retroactive benefits. 

“Even if everything goes well and you get a pardon and a full discharge upgrade to honorable, it doesn’t bring back your military career,” Bhageloe said. 

“It doesn’t fix the fact that you were a volunteer for the military during an all-volunteer force, and we essentially discarded them.” 

The United Kingdom and Canada faced similar reckonings with the treatment of their queer military members. But unlike the United States, both countries have made formal, public apologies and started funds for monetary reparations to pay LGBTQ+ service members who lost benefits after being kicked out of the military.  

Pardons as a political tool 

Over the last year, both Biden and Trump were busy wielding their clemency powers, from Biden granting his son, Hunter, a pardon, to Trump clearing political allies and contributors, including tax evaders and January 6 protesters. 

“I think the difference is my pardon was done for a crime that no longer exists,” Harter said. “For crimes that still exist, there should be some other extenuating circumstance that justifies a pardon. Not just a political favor.”

Eligible veterans are still able to apply for the Article 125 pardon on the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website. A Department of Justice spokesman failed to provide The War Horse with an update on the pardon numbers since the office responded May 1 to our original request. Advocates say Trump’s decision to ban transgender troops from the military may make more LGBTQ+ veterans hesitant to apply for a pardon.  

“Over time, more people might apply,” Montalto said, “but I would imagine some people who might have considered applying no longer wish to do so.”

For others, it doesn’t matter who the president is, said Perkowski—the loss of trust is irreparable. “They do not trust the government, regardless of who is in charge, to do the right thing for them,” he said.

Even after Harter left the military, his conviction followed him. He had to explain it during every employment background check, and he believes the experience escalated his downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction. Plus, he lost access to all VA health care benefits and education benefits that he was getting through his service and had to finish working his way through college on his own.

He feels disconnected from other veterans, despite having served for eight years in the late 1980s — two as a tank crewman, and six as a field artillery repair specialist — and earning an Army Commendation Medal. 

Though he’s now been sober for 35 years and recently retired from his job as a travel nurse, “These charges have haunted me,” he said. 

His journey to clear his name is still not complete. 

Even though Harter now has his pardon, he still had to separately apply to get his bad conduct discharge changed to an honorable discharge. 

He was told the process could take up to 18 months. Five months after he sent in his application, he’s still waiting. The pardon may help his cause, advocates said, but there is no guarantee that his discharge will be upgraded.

Four decades later, it’s one last hurdle. Getting his discharge record restored, he said, would “help me return to that sense of pride.”

This War Horse investigation was reported by Leah Rosenbaum, edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Hrisanthi Pickett wrote the headlines.