The Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) is thrilled to announce that USAA — one of the nation’s leading providers of insurance and banking services to the military and veteran community — recently donated $10,000 to MMAA in support of the organization’s “Restore Honor, Restore Dignity” program. Earlier this year, USAA agreed to redirect its $25,000 sponsorship of the MMAA Gala, that was canceled due to the pandemic, to this program and other initiatives.
Through the “Restore Honor, Restore Dignity” program, MMAA provides free and direct legal services to military members and veterans who were discharged based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or serostatus. The program provides a remedy for the harm experienced under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and previous discriminatory policies by removing offensive evidence of those defunct policies from the veteran’s discharge paperwork and seeking discharge upgrades if necessary. MMAA also assists transgender veterans in changing the name and gender marker on their military records. The work is vital to ensuring service members and veterans have access to the full benefits they earned.
More than 9,000 veterans have been assisted through the program, which was first launched in 1993 by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). Outserve-SLDN merged with the American Military Partner Association (AMPA) in May 2019 to form MMAA.
USAA has been a supporter of AMPA/MMAA since 2015 and its work for the LGBTQ military and veteran community.
