President Biden's decision to pardon LGBTQ+ servicemembers convicted for their sexual orientation is being celebrated by members of the armed forces in Massachusetts.

Discharged over a joke

For U.S. Navy veteran Allie Thorpe, it started with an off the cuff joke about calling out of work.

"I made a joke that I was going to call in gay. Instead of laughing, she followed that with a bunch of questions," said Thorpe, who was interrogated by their fellow servicemember and forced to address their sexuality in 2006. Her fellow U.S. Navy sailor sold them out.

Steve Marose, a former US Air Force officer who was discharged for being gay and who served prison time for consensual sodomy, said he had long hoped that one day he would be pardoned.

"I can pretend that 'Oh, I'm resilient,' you know, 'I got this,' but in the end, it's trauma," Mr Marose told the BBC.

He is one of thousands whose convictions were overturned on Wednesday, after US President Joe Biden announced that he would pardon those found guilty of crimes under a military law that banned gay sex for more than 60 years.

President Biden on Wednesday pardoned former U.S. service members who were dishonorably discharged after their conviction for violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.

Biden’s action grants a pardon to service members who were convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s former Article 125, which criminalized sodomy. The law, which has been on the books since 1951, was rewritten in 2013 to prohibit only forcible acts.

President Biden pardoned LGBTQ+ service members who were convicted of a crime under military law based on their sexual orientation on Wednesday, a move that is expected to affect thousands of service members who were convicted over the six decades that military law formally banned consensual homosexual conduct.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a sweeping executive order Monday issuing pardons for more than 175,000 marijuana and drug paraphernalia convictions.

The mass order for low-level possession charges will be given to nearly 100,000 people, The Washington Post reported.

Moore said the decision is intended to address decades of social and economic injustice, including Marylanders of color being denied housing, employment and educational opportunities based on minor criminal records.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) made history Monday with a mass pardoning of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, a move he said would changes the lives of tens of thousands of Marylanders after the state legalized recreational cannabis last year.

“We know that legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by the war on drugs,” Moore said during a pardoning ceremony at the State House on Monday.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order pardoning an estimated 175,000 of marijuana-related convictions on Monday.

President Biden emphatically defended his son at a summit of world leaders here, commenting directly for the first time since Hunter Biden was convicted this week on federal gun charges, while also reiterating that he would not use his presidential powers to soften whatever penalty his son faces.

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President Joe Biden on Thursday said he will not commute his son Hunter’s sentence following the latter’s conviction on three felony gun charges Tuesday.

Biden also maintained Thursday he would not pardon his son, which he originally said during an appearance on ABC News last week.

President Joe Biden stamped out speculation Thursday that he could commute the sentence of his son, Hunter Biden, to help him avoid jail time and reiterated his vow that he will not pardon him.

The president’s comments mark his first on-camera remarks on the topic following Hunter Biden’s Tuesday conviction on felony gun charges, which he characterized as a fair trial. His immediate statement following the verdict confirmed his decision not to pardon his son, following promises made by White House officials that he would not do so.