“Today, I am righting a historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said.
the issue of back pay remains complex and largely unaddressed in the immediate details provided by the officials. They did not specify commitments regarding back pay for the time veterans were unjustly separated from service, which suggests that further clarifications from the Department of Defense might be necessary.
The ultimate end-goal of a president’s first term is to be elected for a second term, and we Americans have very short attention spans. Stuff like this that seems like it should obviously have been done as soon as someone with the will to change it comes into power is more politically beneficial to do in an election year. It’s a shit system, certainly, but even the (relatively speaking) “good politicians” have to operate within it.