Discrimination
The Veterans Administration (VA), charged with implementing the provisions of the G.I. Bill, denied benefits to blue-discharge veterans, despite the Bill's explicit language that made only a dishonorable discharge grounds for denying benefits to a veteran. In 1945, the VA issued a directive that all blue-discharges for homosexuality would be denied benefits. On December 22, 1955, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an appeal from Raymond W. Longernecker, who had been denied his G.I. Bill benefits by the VA because of his blue discharge. The Court found that the VA had discretion in awarding benefits and that Congress had specifically foreclosed the courts from overruling it. Nevertheless, the Court noted that the denial of benefits should only have occurred if Longernecker had been dishonorably discharged and that the VA Administrator was acting without authority in treating a blue discharge as if it were dishonorable.
Most employers required that job applicants who had served in the military present their discharge papers as part of the application process. Blue-discharge veterans experienced difficulty in securing employment because many employers were aware that the blue discharge meant that the holder was considered undesirable. Those employers who did not know had access to a list of the Separation Program Numbers or "spin" numbers that the military used to classify discharges. At least four such spin numbers indicated a gay-related discharge.
Congress had expressed concern about possible misuse of the blue discharge when it began work on the G.I. Bill in 1944. In discussions about the legislation's details, the American Legion insisted on a specific provision to provide benefits to veterans discharged under any circumstance other than dishonorable. The Legion believed a large number of veterans had been given blue and other less-than-honorable discharges for reasons that it considered unreasonable or trivial. In testimony before the United States Senate, Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs strongly opposed this provision on the grounds that it would undermine morale and remove any incentive to maintain a good service record. Senator Bennett Champ Clark, a sponsor of the bill, dismissed his concerns, calling them "some of the most stupid, short-sighted objections which could be raised". Clark went on to say:
"The Army is giving blue discharges, namely discharges without honor, to those who have had no fault other than they have not shown sufficient aptitude for military service. I say that when the government drafts a man from civil life and puts him in the military service ... and, thereafter, because the man does not show sufficient aptitude gives him a blue discharge, or a discharge without honor, that fact should not be permitted to prevent the man from receiving the benefits to which soldiers are generally entitled."
The G.I. Bill also provided for discharge review boards to review an appeal of any discharge other than dishonorable. From 1945 until early 1947, these boards routinely upgraded to honorable the blue discharges of homosexual service members who had not committed any known sex acts during their military service. About one-third of all blue discharges reviewed were upgraded to honorable.
Read more about this topic: Blue Discharge