UK Gay Army
Gay Men in the UK Army Forces
Comment
I’m not gay, but I know a few gay people in various regiments. Homosexuality is something that is still very uncommon in the military. It is getting better, though.
There are more protections in place to mitigate discrimination, and the MOD will continue to aim to remove discrimination. It is, however impossible to completely irradicate it.
If you have thick skin, you will be fine. Most of the abuse will be in the form of “banter”.
It’s possible to have a career in the UK Armed Forces as a homosexual; however, like all male-dominated careers, not all of your colleagues will be supporters of your lifestyle.
Most of the lads I know though don’t mind having gay squaddies, as long as they train hard fight harder and will have their back. Also don’t kiss any blokes or talk vulgarly in front of them.
Background
Jeanette Smith and Graeme Grady were investigated and dismissed from the armed forces because of their sexual orientation.
In 1994, military investigators separately quizzed Jeanette and Graeme after learning that they were gay. Both were asked intimate questions about their relationships and sex lives before decisions were taken to end their careers.
Jeanette and Graeme – together with two other service members who had experienced the same thing, Duncan Lustig-Prean and John Beckett – applied to the UK courts for a legal review of the decisions.
They argued that the UK authorities’ stance against gay people in the armed forces was “irrational” and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Their application, however, was refused.
The group decided to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
The European court found that the investigations into Jeanette and Graeme’s sexual orientation, and the decisions taken to discharge them, interfered with their private lives in an unjustified way.
The UK government claimed that the policy against gay people serving in the military, and Jeanette and Graeme’s resulting dismissal, was necessary for the morale, fighting power and operational effectiveness of the armed forces.
But the European court did not accept that these reasons were sufficiently convincing to justify Jeannette and Graeme’s discharge. It therefore ruled that the UK violated their human rights. On the same day, the European court also found similar violations in the case of Duncan Lustig-Prean and John Beckett.
On 12 January 2000 – and in response to the European court’s judgment in Jeanette and Graham’s case, as well as the case of Duncan Lustig-Prean and John Beckett – the UK government introduced a new armed forces policy which lifted the ban on gay people serving in the military.
UK veterans fired over sexuality to get £70,000 in compensation
Thousands of British military personnel who were dismissed from service because of their homosexuality will be able to apply for payments worth up to £70,000 each from today, to recognise the distress caused by a ban that applied between 1967 and 2000.
Labour ministers have approved the creation of a £75m compensation scheme, nearly a quarter of a century after the ending of a policy that led to some soldiers being jailed, while others were stripped of their medals and lost their pension rights.
John Healey, the defence secretary, described the historical treatment of LGBT veterans as “a moral stain on our nation” and said ministers were determined to “right the wrongs of the past and recognise the hurt that too many endured”.
Earlier this year, the Falklands veteran Joe Ousalice, a bisexual Royal Navy radio operator who was dismissed in 1993 for being “prejudicial to good order and naval discipline”, said he feared dying of cancer before receiving any compensation.
Gay men and lesbian women were banned from serving in the British military until 2000. About 200-250 were thrown out each year because of their sexuality, though the exact figures are not known as proper records were not retained.
Healey will lead a debate in the Commons on Thursday to announce the scheme, and the Ministry of Defence has invited LGBT veterans to attend in the public gallery. “We have listened to veterans,” the defence secretary said.
Those who were dismissed on grounds of their sexuality will be eligible for a flat payment of £50,000 plus further payments worth up to £20,000 based on how severely they were treated at the time. Veterans will also be able to apply to have their rank restored and their reason for discharge amended.
Labour increased the size of the scheme by 50% to £75m. An independent review published last year by a former judge, Terence Etherton, had recommended that the compensation fund had been capped at £50m. Increasing the size of the fund added to the time taken to make the announcement, officials said.
Etherton’s review contained evidence of dozens of cases of homophobia, victimisation, mistreatment and intrusive investigations. In one example, a former member of the Royal Navy admitted having a sexual experience with another man while on leave, aged 19, because he did not want to be exposed to blackmail.
The veteran, who is anonymous, said he was “dragged from my bed” by naval police the next morning and “humiliated by being marched off of the ship in front of the entire ship’s company”. He was detained at Portsmouth for months without legal representation, made to do “degrading menial tasks” and finally court-martialled and dismissed after being told he had broken the age of consent at the time.
The episode “led to my parents disowning me, along with the rest of my family” and had affected his life, leading to “long self-destructive behaviour” including alcoholism and depression, because “I had what I thought would be a confidential conversation with my divisional officer confessing a sexual experience I had had whilst on leave.”
The last serviceman to be sent to prison for being homosexual was David Bonney, who was found guilty at a court martial in Cornwall in 1993. Bonney said he was subject to a two-year investigation after a copy of the Gay Times had been found in his room, involving him being bugged and followed by military police.
