BOSTON - Wednesday marked the 12th anniversary of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gov. Maura Healey marked the day by establishing a way to help veterans impacted by the policy.

Healey swore in the Veterans Equality Review Board (VERB) on Wednesday. It's focused on equality and righting what she says is a wrong that impacted thousands of veterans benefits.

"I was very closeted at the time and when you can’t be who you are, you can’t relate to people on those levels and you have to hide, said Clifford Brown, an Army Veteran and member of VERB. "It does take a negative impact on you." 

When "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" was implemented in the 1990s, service members could be kicked out of the military with an “other than honorable discharge” just for being gay.

"I can vividly recall talking to buddies of mine tell me about your girlfriend or boyfriend, and that was the hardest part," said state Sen. John Velis, D-Hampden & Hampshire. "You have this human being who can’t engage in these conversations because they are going to get kicked out of the military. How wrong is that?"

Although the policy was repealed in 2011, those who were discharged didn’t get to change their status, and it impacted their access to benefits they would have otherwise received Now, Healey announced on Wednesday, a review board can change that discharge status, opening up state benefits to anyone still impacted all these years later.

"I served under 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' from 2007 until it was repealed," Brown said. "To be a part of the solution means a lot."

For Velis, a veteran himself who helped create the review board, this was a long time coming.

"The lesson for me is that don’t assume that just because something is repealed that all the collateral consequences are also repealed," he said.