AUGUSTA - The Maine Legislature has unanimously enacted a bill that would restore state benefits to Maine veterans who separated from service without an honorable discharge due solely to the veteran's sexual orientation or gender identity.
"I am grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their support on this bill," said Wood. "Our veterans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, served our country and should qualify for the benefits their fellow service members have access to."
Woods bill, LD 173, requires the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services to establish a process for Maine veterans' separated from service without an honorable discharge, due solely to the veterans sexual orientation or gender identity, to have that discharge treated as an honorable discharge for the purposes of determining the veterans' eligibility for rights, privileges and benefits granted to veterans in Maine law.
"Any veteran who has attempted to obtain their service records on their own, make corrections to those records, or update their medals or awards knows firsthand the process of working with individual branches of the military takes time," said David Richmond, Director of the Maine Bureau of Veterans' Services, when he testified in supportive testimony before the Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee. "The Maine Bureau of Veterans' Services is ready and willing to establish a state application process, administered out of our central office, to provide state veterans benefits to Maine veterans who were treated unfairly due to their sexual orientation."
The measure now heads to the governor's desk for her signature.
Wood is serving her first term in the Maine House and represents part of Portland. She is a member of both the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee and the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Wood], c. 812-1111