Tag Archives: army

Top UK Army General Says LGBT Soldiers Make For More Effective Army

According to Lt Gen James Everard, recruiting more gay people into the Army makes it more effective.

His comments come as commanders try to widen the pool of potential recruits for the UK’s armed forces.

Lt Gen James Everard said “diverse teams” of people, if well led, are “far more effective than bog-standard teams.”

The Army’s push to seem more welcoming to the LGBT community comes as commanders believe they have to work harder to recruit from “non-traditional” parts of society.

The Army is already holding a review into whether it should open up combat jobs to women and is also trying to attract more recruits from Britain’s ethnic minorities.

… [Diversity] in our ranks gives us a breadth of understanding and capability we don’t get in any other way … we need to reach into [places] that probably people would have said were non-traditional – away from the working class of Middlesbrough and all that sort of stuff and into a more diverse and broader range of characters. That’s hugely important for us.”

The UK dropped its ban on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people openly serving in 2000.

At the start of this year if started to record soldiers’ sexuality on a voluntary basis. So far only 230 serving troops have come out as gay or bisexual.

Lt Gen Everard said the Army was still struggling to change attitudes among some soldiers and some gay recruits found the “lived experience” was not ideal.

He added:

Like most problems, [fixing] the first 70 per cent is quite easy. It’s closing out the last 30 per cent [which is hard] … and that’s to do with attitudes.”

He said the Afghan and Iraq wars to the past 15 years, where gay troops had served openly for the first time, had changed attitudes on the front line.

Those that were slightly frightened of what they didn’t understand; what they learned from those wars, there they fought alongside gay people, was that you can be homosexual and extremely brave … people came back saying, these guys are part of the team.”

Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual UK Servicemen And Women Are Now Willingly Out Themselves On Their Military Records

Hundreds of gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemen and women have willingly outed themselves on their military records in the UK.

Around 250 servicemen and 181 servicewomen ­said they are homosexual on files, while 86 men and 18 women were bisexual.

However, 829 men and 102 women chose to keep their sexuality secret – many because of fear of bullying, says a military source.

This first official audit came after the Ministry of Defence gave service personnel the option to reveal their sexual orientation in January.

An MoD spokesman said:

“The MoD proudly encourages diversity. Personnel are now encouraged to declare their orientation. Although this is not mandatory, collecting this data will give us a better understanding of the composition of our Armed Forces and help ­ensure policies fully support our personnel.”

Another military source applauded the news, but warned more must be done.

“The fact many troops feel ­confident enough to declare their ­sexuality on their personal documents is a major step forward in the right direction. But homophobic bullying still exists within the military and it is a problem, which isn’t going away. The armed forces need to ensure that they continue the good work because there is a lot more to be done. 

The Ministry of Defence should not be complacent because some troops feel confident enough to declare their sexuality.”

Stonewall, however estimates there could be at least 10,000 LGBT troops serving in the UK armed forces, but many fearing abuse and prejudice, which stops them from coming out.

Recently lesbian soldier, Lance Bombardier Kerry Fletcher, won £124,000 in 2009 for sexual harassment that led to her quitting the Royal Artillery. And one general recently ­revealed he is ­preparing to out himself in protest over homophobic ­comments made by a colleague.

“I never ­considered outing myself until ­another very senior officer said he believed that ­admission of­ ­homosexuality by a senior ­officer would be career suicide. I actually felt like saying, ‘Actually I’m gay and it has never prevented me from serving Queen and country’. “I was furious, but in the end I let the comment pass. Over the last few weeks, I started to ask myself whether the time had come for someone of my rank to speak out and say you can serve your country at the highest levels as a gay man or woman.”