---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO MILITARY AFFAIRS AND DEFENSE -- RECORDATION OF HONORABLE DISCHARGES (Provides a petition process to have a discharge from service recorded as honorable for members of the armed services separated from service with a general or other than honorable discharge due solely to their sexual orientation/gender identity/expression.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO MILITARY AFFAIRS AND DEFENSE -- RECORDATION OF HONORABLE DISCHARGES (Provides a petition process to have a discharge from service recorded as honorable for members of the armed services separated from service with a general or other than honorable discharge due solely to their sexual orientation/gender identity/expression.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "SB 837"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 837 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Employment Security", "Equal Rights/Discrimination"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Euer", "Goldin", "Lynch Prata", "McCaffrey", "Murray"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-04-30"
last_action: "2019-06-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/27f01a92-12c6-4c5f-91c1-287eed148cec"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "ad5ec33d9b98a78b3c28a15d0db4c3c631331f87d2e303e1080d592eebdfe825"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 837 (2019) — AN ACT RELATING TO MILITARY AFFAIRS AND DEFENSE -- RECORDATION OF HONORABLE DISCHARGES (Provides a petition process to have a discharge from service recorded as honorable for members of the armed services separated from service with a general or other than honorable discharge due solely to their sexual orientation/gender identity/expression.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **837** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText19/SenateText19/S0837.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **35–0** (pass) · upper
- IN CONCURRENCE — **75–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Euer — primary (person)
- Goldin — primary (person)
- Lynch Prata — primary (person)
- McCaffrey — primary (person)
- Murray — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-04-30** 04/30/2019 Introduced, referred to Senate Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-05-10** 05/10/2019 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (05/15/2019)
- **2019-05-15** 05/15/2019 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2019-05-24** 05/24/2019 Scheduled for consideration (05/29/2019)
- **2019-05-29** 05/29/2019 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-06-04** 06/04/2019 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/06/2019)
- **2019-06-06** 06/06/2019 Senate read and passed `passage`
- **2019-06-07** 06/07/2019 Referred to House Veterans Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-07** 06/07/2019 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/13/2019)
- **2019-06-13** 06/13/2019 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-06-14** 06/14/2019 Placed on House Calendar (06/19/2019)
- **2019-06-19** 06/19/2019 House passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2019-06-19** 06/19/2019 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-06-21** 06/21/2019 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/27f01a92-12c6-4c5f-91c1-287eed148cec`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).