U.K. Prime Mister Rishi Sunak has apologized for the treatment of gay veterans by sayg that a prev ban on LGBTQ+ people servg the U.K. ary was “an appallg failure of the Brish state.”
Contents:
- I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
- HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
- GAYS THE MILARY
- MILARY SERVICE EXPERIENC AND REASONS FOR SERVICE SEPARATN AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL DIVIDUALS A LARGE ARY HORT
I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
Armed forc long prohibed gay people om service – but that only enuraged their muni and e * military gay term *
In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un.
HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.
GAYS THE MILARY
But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first.
It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members.
A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary. There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service. Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole.
MILARY SERVICE EXPERIENC AND REASONS FOR SERVICE SEPARATN AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL DIVIDUALS A LARGE ARY HORT
It’s only been five years sce Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, fally allowg gays, lbians and bisexual people to openly serve the ary.