Many gay and lbian vets still owed benefs after don't ask, don't tell repeal : NPR

Contents:

• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• IN SOUTH KOREA, GAY SOLDIERS CAN SERVE. BUT THEY MIGHT BE PROSECUTED.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

Sce 2011, openly gay, lbian and bisexual men and women have been permted to serve the ary. It wasn’t until 1982 that the ary enacted a policy explicly banng gay men and lbians om their ranks.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

And the early 1940s, was classified as a mental illns, disqualifyg gay men and lbians om service. Eighteen years later, Congrs repealed the policy, allowg openly gay, lbian and bisexual people to serve the ary.

It was illegal to be gay the UK ary until 2000 and Rishi Sunak has said sorry to those who were sacked or forced out. “Durg this time, many have suffered the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic harassment, while urageoly servg this untry, ” he ntued. "Today, on behalf of the Brish state, I apologise, " Rishi Sunak a change the law 2000, lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr people were not allowed to serve the Brish army.

But as a gay man, I have been fightg my whole life to enjoy the very privileg I am entled to as both a beholr and protector of them.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. After takg a few sends, she said: ‘Durg that time [Kelly was the army om 1998-1997] there was a wch hunt, where they were purposely gog to barracks and tryg to fd people who were nsired, possibly, to be gay.

Prime Mister Rishi Sunak apologised on behalf of the ernment (Picture: AP)It was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000, and Sunak lled this fact an ‘appallg failure’ and apologised on behalf of the ernment. Servg personnel spected of beg gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenr ed to be tensely qutned and subjected to distrsg medil spectns. Kelly has fought for the apology (Picture: Jeremy O’Donnell/Shutterstock)Some even served time behd bars due to the ary crimal offence of beg homosexual.

Kelly Holm was an Army sergeant (Picture: PA)‘As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry, ’ said Sunak. Not only was agast the ary regulatns, gay sex was still illegal Virgia, and many other stat. "They threw me the brig, put me on bread and water — was huiatg --for beg gay, " says Steffanis.

IN SOUTH KOREA, GAY SOLDIERS CAN SERVE. BUT THEY MIGHT BE PROSECUTED.

Rumors sprouted about how he wasn't datg women or had reported on others for g homophobic slurs. In the years sce, the tegratn of gay and lbian troops has been herald as a huge succs wh no effects on un hn or bat reads, acrdg to the Pentagon.

At the time was uncharted terrory, and Alexanr, by then a litenant lonel, sat a room full of senr officers talkg about how to handle gay service members. Alexanr's first project was wh the San Francis-based veterans chary Swords to Plowshar, tryg to help gay veterans wh other-than-honorable discharg.

"I put up flyers all over the Bay Area the gay bars, plac I knew that the LGBTQ veterans would equent.

And that's where he met Stephan Steffanis, 20 years sce his discharge om the Navy for beg gay. “As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry, ” Sunak told MP.

Promisg the ernment would implement the “vast majory” of Etherton’s remendatns, Wallace said he would fully update the Commons a formal bate about the issue after the about pensatn, Wallace said he hoped to fd “an elegant solutn that match the need and the requirements of those dividuals”, promisg to set this out after Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, was among mpaigners who weled the apology. Starmer said one of his nstuents, Ken Wright, a former RAF service member who was “forced to leave the job he loved simply bee he was gay”, was the public gallery to hear the apology.

Image source, Emma RileyImage ptn, Rad operator Emma Riley was discharged om the Navy for beg a lbian the 1990sRishi Sunak has apologised for the historil treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the ary for beg PM lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 - wh thoands of veterans thought to be affected. Addrsg MPs, the prime mister said: "Many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment all while bravely servg this untry.

"The LGBT Veterans Inpennt Review, led by Bra's first openly gay judge Lord Etherton, began last year and heard about the experienc of 1, 145 veterans between 1967 to 2000. Acrdg to the report, the Mistry of Defence said at the time that jtifitn for the policy clud "matenance of operatnal effectivens and efficiency" - but the report said there had been an "prehensible policy of homophobic bigotry" the armed forc.

It heard shockg acunts of homophobia, bullyg, blackmail, sexual asslts, "disgraceful" medil examatns, and nversn mak 49 remendatns to the ernment cludg:Affected veterans to be given an "appropriate fancial reward" pped at £50m overallThe rtoratn of medals that had to be hand back on dismissal or dischargeThe clarifitn of pensn rights The prentatn of a special veterans' badgeThe ernment said would rpond full after summer of the veterans affected watched the PM's public of them, Emma Riley, 51, was a Royal Navy rad operator for three years before she was arrted and discharged for beg a lbian after tellg a lleague her sexualy the early told BBC News she weled the report, and hoped would be put to place "swiftly. Carol Man, who was dismissed after tellg her boss she was gay 1978, kept her sexualy secret for another 30 years and said she had been "robbed" of her life. "Olympian Dame Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, lled the publitn of the report a "historic moment", while Cathere Dixon, a former army officer who is now vice chair at Stonewall, said was "an important step towards jtice" for those whose ary reers were "ed" bee of their sexualy.

Many still have a crimal rerd to this also tails how some veterans faced a plete loss of e, while others were emed eligible to claim their pensn bee of their report more than 20 years after four servicemen and women, who were sacked for beg gay, won a se the European Court of Human Rights and overturned the armed forc chary Royal Brish Legn lled on the ernment to accept the report's remendatns chary's director general Charl Byrne weled both the report and Mr Sunak's "landmark apology", sayg many people who had dited their liv to the untry were "forced or felt prsured to leave the armed forc, and this mistreatment stroyed or shortened their reer". On 12 January 2000 the way the Brish ary treated homosexualy wh s ranks changed until then, gay, lbian and bisexual people had been banned om servg the Brish Army, Royal Navy and RAF.

Half a after the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell, most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members still felt reluctant to be open about their sexualy wh their lleagu and cha of mand, acrdg to a study released late study, published by the journal Sexualy Rearch and Social Policy, found that 59 percent of rponnts did not feel fortable beg out at work, eher bee of reer repercsns or bee of the burn of beg a token rponsible for tg their peers. ”Dpe the orrs om above, many veterans publicly opposed the 2011 repeal of the ban on gay, lbian and bisexual service for troops who had grown up that environment, the policy’s mise did not flip a swch terms of fort level ― theirs or their lleagu. “The stctor was reported to e the pejorative term ‘fags’ durg class, disclose other people’s sexual mory inty to his stunts whout their permissn, and munite that he believed sexual mori were more promiscuo than heterosexuals, ” acrdg the the study, based on a rponse om a gay soldier.

I am about to be put on a board for major and I do not want to not even have that opportuny to put myself where they n easily be like, ‘Get rid of this guy; if we have to cut 55 percent of the officers up for , he’s one of the easy on we n jt fd a reason to jt ver [ourselv], ' " said one rponnt, a gay Mare. “I had a few iends there [ trag] that I got to know pretty well, but I knew a uple of them had some pretty strong relig backgrounds and I did not really feel like ttg the waters at that pot, ” one rponnt, a gay soldier, said.

I’m like well, the bt way to keep people om beg homophobic is to have them have someone that they know and rpect, who is gay, ” one sailor said. RELATEDAnd on Monday, the Supreme Court led that the employers nnot discrimate agast their homosexual or transgenr employe. "An employer who fir an dividual for beg homosexual or transgenr fir that person for tras or actns would not have qutned members of a different sex, ” Jtice Neil Gorsuch wrote the cisn.

Army Chief General Bip Rawat has led out cln of gay soldiers ary, sayg Indian Army is not “wternised”, and was “nservative” Delhi: Indian Army Chief General Bip Rawat created a ntroversy Thursday when he said homosexualy will ntue to be nsired an offence the armed forc. This fli the face of last year’s historic Supreme Court judgment that stck down a part of the ntroversial Sectn 377 and crimalised nsensual sex between homosexuals. Addrsg the army’s annual prs nference, Rawat said that while the Army Act, which erns the force, was not above the law of the land, the Indian Army was not “wternised and mornised”, and was “nservative” when me to matters like adultery or homosexualy.

In a landmark judgment livered September 2018, the Supreme Court led that homosexualy was no longer a crime apex urt overled s own 2013 verdict and partially stck down Sectn 377, the Brish-era law that banned sex between nsentg adults of the same genr. Laws erng the three arms of the Indian ary bar homosexualy — although through phemisms and not explicly — and le a punishable offence.