The Department of Defense announced additional resources on Wednesday designed to help retired LGBT veterans who left the military with a less than honorable discharge due to their sexual orientation under the department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

DOD Instruction 1304.26, more commonly referred to as the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, was in place from Feb. 28, 1994, until its repeal on Sept. 20, 2011, and it barred members of the LGBT community from serving in the military openly. If those service members didn't disclose their sexual orientation, they could continue serving in the military.

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The department announced this renewed push to reach out to the veterans adversely affected by the policy to help on Wednesday, which coincides with the 12th anniversary of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

"For decades, our LGBTQ+ Service members were forced to hide or were prevented from serving altogether. Even still, they selflessly put themselves in harm’s way for the good of our country and the American people," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, too many of them were discharged from the military based on their sexual orientation — and for many this left them without access to the benefits and services they earned. Over the past decade, we’ve tried to make it easier for Service members discharged based on their sexual orientation to obtain corrective relief. While this process can be difficult to navigate, we are working to make it more accessible and efficient. In the coming weeks, we will be initiating new outreach campaigns to encourage all Service members and Veterans who believe they have suffered an error or injustice to seek correction to their military records."

More than 13,000 service members were discharged under the "Homosexual Conduct" policy during the 17 years of "don't ask, don't tell," and only a little more than half of them were given an honorable discharge. The designation a service member gets when he or she leaves the military can affect access to various veterans benefits, including Department of Veterans Affairs loan programs, college tuition assistance, healthcare, and more.

Roughly 2,000 troops received less than an honorable discharge in this time frame, while approximately a third of the 13,742 troops who were discharged under the policy had an entry-level separation, which means they left the service less than 180 days after joining.

The department will produce and release podcasts, online webinars, and learning modules for these veterans to help them through the process of applying for a change in discharge from the Military Department Review Boards.

DOD is also launching a more proactive review initiative, which will begin with identifying veterans who were discharged during that period and will conduct a "preliminary review using existing personnel and current policies specific to veterans discharge because of their sexual orientation," a U.S. defense official told reporters.

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This proactive outreach effort has not begun, the official noted, explaining that it will start when the department is "assured that everybody has the proper training and that we're doing this in the right way."

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters on Wednesday that about four of five veterans who have applied for an upgraded discharge have been granted.