ASSEMBLY MILITARY AND VETERANS' AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4428

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 16, 2025

      The Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 4428.

      This bill updates the definition of veteran in various statutes to include discharged LGBTQ veterans.  This bill also requires the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs (DMVA) to develop a review process for discharged LGBTQ veterans concerning lost benefits.

      An estimated 100,000 LGBTQ veterans were discharged from the military under less than honorable conditions from the start of World War II until the 2011 repeal of the military’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.  Transgender veterans continued to be banned and discharged from service until the June 2016 Directive-Type Memorandum-16-005, issued by then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, which was subsequently reversed by the March 2019 Directive-Type Memorandum-19-004, issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist.  These veterans lost their right to both state and federal benefits by being discharged under less than honorable conditions.

      This bill adds a definition of “discharged LGBTQ veteran” to various statutory definitions of “veteran.”  “Discharged LGBTQ veteran” means a veteran who was discharged less than honorably from military or naval service due to their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or statements, consensual sexual conduct, or consensual acts relating to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or the disclosure of such statements, conduct, or acts that were prohibited by the Armed Forces of the United States at the time of discharge.  The added definition, along with the addition of a DMVA review process for discharged LGBTQ veterans, will restore State benefits for those veterans.