F ighting With Pride are pleased to see the Government announce today an Independent Review of what happened to LGBT+ Veterans. We expect the review to last about 9 months and will report to Parliament on what needs to happen in the future to support LGBT+ Veterans. Whilst we are pleased to see this cornerstone of the FWP campaign take a leap forward, we recognise that it has taken 22 years to achieve the beginnings of remedy for a policy that can only be described as shameful. In the period of the review, FWP will campaign for swift and substantial action to provide reparations for every veteran affected by a ban that inflicted appalling injustices and staggering cruelty inflicted on thousands of people who served their country.
Today in the national media, FWP is calling on Ministers to:
– Provide compensation, and review and restore lost pensions
– Issue a full, genuine apology on behalf of the nation
– Restore veterans to the Retired List
– Invest in the LGBT+ veteran community and much-needed support services
– Take steps to ensure veterans feel welcome within the military family
In their press release today FWP has said:
‘Thousands of LGBT+ veterans still live in shame and poverty, outside the military family and its network of support. They stepped forward to serve their country and were treated with shocking cruelty. It has been more than twenty years since the ban was lifted, but the Government has left these veterans behind.’
FWP have been advised by the Cabinet Office that they will meet the Chair immediately upon their appointment and they are attending the Cabinet Office next week for their first meeting with the project lead. The first matter on the agenda will be to ensure that your voices to be heard. There is nothing more powerful than your personal accounts of the ban and whether in person, by video or audio recording or by written accounts we will wish you to have the opportunity to tell the Review what happened and what event the ban has had on your lives.
