Blue Discharge - Aftermath

Aftermath

Despite the Committee's report, the VA continued to discriminate against homosexual blue-tickets, renewing its 1945 directive in 1946 and again in 1949. Blue discharges were discontinued as of July 1, 1947, and two new headings, general and undesirable, took their place. A general discharge was considered to be under honorable conditions – distinct from an "honorable discharge" – and an undesirable discharge was under conditions other than honorable – distinct from a "dishonorable discharge". At the same time, the Army changed its regulations to ensure that gay and lesbian service members would not qualify for general discharges. Those found guilty of engaging in homosexual conduct still received dishonorable discharges, while those identified as homosexuals but not to have committed any homosexual acts now received undesirable discharges. By the 1970s, a service member who had not committed any homosexual acts would tend to receive a general discharge, while those found to have engaged in homosexual sex tended to receive undesirable discharges. Gay service members continued to receive a disproportionate percentage of the undesirable discharges issued. This was the status quo until replaced in 1993 by the policy commonly known as "don't ask, don't tell".

It has been suggested that the large gay populations in port cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York City are in part the result of the blue discharge. The theory asserts that many gay blue-ticket veterans from smaller urban or rural areas who felt they were unable to return to their home communities because of the shame associated with their discharges relocated to larger areas with established gay subcultures or simply stayed in the city through which they were returned to the United States.