‘The fuss of ten years ago seems somewhat bizarre’

Ten years ago this week those laws were overturned following cases taken to the European courts by four gay servicemen. How much has the military changed in its attitudes since?

Lieutenant Commander (retd) Craig Jones was the most senior openly gay serviceman when he retired from the Navy in 2008.

He remembers listening in his cabin aboard HMS Fearless to the speech made by Geoff Hoon, then Defence Secretary, as the Government acknowledged that the ban on gays in the military must end. It was a grudging admission of defeat:

“I believe and have always believed, as the previous government did, that we should follow the advice of the Armed Forces, which has always been that lifting the ban would adversely affect operational effectiveness,” Hoon told the Commons.

One outraged Tory MP, Gerald Howarth, told the House: “This appalling decision will be greeted with dismay, particularly by ordinary soldiers in Her Majesty’s Forces, many of whom joined the Services precisely because they wished to turn their back on some of the values of modern society.”

At the time Jones’s shipmates were still under the impression that he had a girlfriend named Sandra living in Australia.

A few weeks later he announced that he was in a relationship with a clinical psychologist called Adam and brought him to a mess dinner.

“It has been an amazing change in ten years,” Jones says today. But he adds: “I would say that the Services are on a journey and they are still closer to the beginning than the end on this issue.”

He credits “a few enlightened thinkers” among senior officers — notably the First Sea Lord from 2002-06 Admiral Lord West — with driving change through military institutions.

Like other servicemen interviewed for this article, he no longer believes the Armed Forces to be institutionally homophobic organisations. However, he believes the greatest effect has been wrought by younger generations of servicemen bringing more tolerant attitudes into the military from wider society.

“Service people are very good at adapting to change and challenge,” he says. “Over time I think they have offered a good welcome to the gay community. Military communities are predominantly young and many of the dinosaurs have left.”

For a younger generation of heterosexual soldiers, the fuss of ten years ago appears somewhat bizarre.

“It is not really an issue,” says Patrick Hennessey, who served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards in Helmand. He acknowledges that there is still “some homophobic banter” among soldiers but says: “As a genuine issue it never came up.”

The only concern today, he says, is over relationships within organisational rank structure — either gay or straight.

However, he said that he had metfew soldiers in the infantry who admitted to being gay.

Lieutenant-Commander Mandy McBain joined the Navy in 1986 and concealed her sexuality till the ban was lifted. She says that change, though considerable, has not been easy.

“After the rules changed, for some, like myself, feeling fully accepted was still difficult. . . I had to wrestle with my own conscience, knowing I had lied to close friends and bosses I respected, and I was worried just how my deceit would be accepted. It sometimes felt like a risk that I was not willing to take. This is still a risk some people of all ranks and rates are not prepared to take. Once you have made the decision to come out there is no going back so it is not one to be taken lightly.”

McBain set up a support group for gays within the Navy in 2008 which is backed by the Admiralty. The Second Sea Lord, Sir Alan Massey, will be a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the gay rights organisation Stonewall in March.

According to a survey conducted by the website Proud2Serve, which supports gay servicemen, two thirds of respondents were open about their sexuality to their comrades.

Stonewall suggests that statistically up to 14,000 Service people may be gay, and the military now advertises for recruits in gay magazines and newspapers.

“While there are till some pockets of homophobia,” says the veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, “overall the Armed Forces has made an astonishingly successful transition from being one of the most homophobic institutions in Britain to being one of the most gay-friendly, all in space of a decade. It’s extraordinary.

“Not only has the ban on lesbian and gay personnel been axed, but nowadays homophobia is treated as a ground for disciplinary action. Service personnel training also often includes awareness about lesbian and gay issues. Gay personnel in a relationship can be allocated married quarters on the same basis as personnel in heterosexual relationships.”

In what many gay Service personnel see as a mark of official acceptance, members of the Navy were permitted to march in uniform at the annual Gay Pride march in London in 2006, the first time any Armed Service had granted such permission. The RAF followed a year later and the Army allowed uniforms to be worn in 2008.

Across the Atlantic homosexuality remains illegal in the US Armed Forces, where a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has been in place since 1995. Statistics compiled by Stonewall suggest that approximately 450 US servicemen were dismissed for homosexuality in 2009.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that repeal of the ban on homosexuality in the Armed Forces had had “absolutely no impact at all on operational effectiveness”.