Fighting With Pride: Lifting the Armed Forces' Gay Ban

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

By law, gay men and women were banned from serving in the British military until the year 2000. Until that year, over 250 service personnel were thrown out of the military each year because of their sexuality alone. This week James is joined by Ed Hall, who was sacked by the Royal Navy for being gay before going on to found the Armed Forces Legal Challenge Group that campaigned successfully to abolish the ban just 22 years ago.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	By law, gay men and lesbian women were banned from serving in the British military until the year 2000.
0:08.0	Up until that point, around 200 to 250 service personnel were thrown out of the military each year because of their
0:16.7	sexuality.
0:17.7	Arrest, internal investigation, dishonorable discharge, forced outing, and even prison were all part of the punishments
0:26.2	inflicted by the British military.
0:29.2	In some instances, medals were physically ripped from a service person's uniform after conviction at court
0:35.2	marshal.
0:36.7	This was until January 12, 2022 years ago, when the British military fundamentally changed the way it treated
0:44.2	homosexuality within its ranks. This is the warfare podcast. I'm your host James
0:49.8	Rogers and to tell us all about this history we have Ed Hall.
0:54.0	Ed is former Royal Navy and he was sacked because of his sexuality.
0:59.0	He subsequently went on to establish and lead the campaign to lift the military ban. If you're not heard much
1:05.2	about this history before, then all I can say is stay tuned. This is a revelatory story. Hi Ed thanks so much for taking the time to chat how you doing I'm good
1:29.3	James thank you really nice to see you again it's been too long thanks to COVID of. It's been too long, thanks to COVID, of course.
1:33.0	It has been too long. I think the last time that I saw you, we were probably heading off to a brunch, lunch situation in Reykjavik before you, Paul and the the dogs jetted off. Where are you
1:43.6	based now? Well we've been based in the UK for the last three years and we are
1:47.4	just at the moment packing so give some of the chaos around me here but we're
1:50.9	on our way to Brussels where Paul that's my partner is taking on a new
1:54.1	role at NATO. There might be some things going on at NATO at the moment I think
1:57.4	Mr Putin might be doing some stuff. Well you know as a diplomatic wife I get into
2:01.0	terrible trouble if I say anything I shouldn't say so I shall remain
2:03.9	wholly silent on the subject but yeah I suspect in a few years time you'll be doing
	...

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