'Nothing will ever repair' the damage from UK Armed Forces' LGBT ban
Serving in the military while the LGBT ban was in place was "like a pressure cooker" and "nothing will ever repair" what happened to those personnel it affected, veterans have said.
Speaking to BFBS Forces News, a number of LGBT veterans affected by the ban have shared their experiences.
One of those was Kevin Basely, who served in the RAF between 1985 and 1995.
He said after the RAF found out he was gay he was suspended and held on suspension for 13 months before eventually being ordered to resign his commission.
"It was such a wrench," he said.
"Being in the RAF was the only career I'd ever wanted to do. I had wanted to fly as long as I could remember."
The careers of LGBT personnel were destroyed because of their sexuality, with some facing homelessness as a result of them losing their jobs.
Mr Basely said that while he had somewhere to go, other people were made instantly homeless.
Lena Chrismas, who served at RAF Uxbridge in the early 1980s, told BFBS Forces News she almost ended up in a hospital or institute as a result of the ban.
"I had a career, you know, I had a whole future," she said.
"Tried to get me locked in a hospital, an institute, tricked me into going down there, thinking I was going to be going to do sports.
"When I turned up there, I realised that they were going to admit me."
She said it was thanks to a squadron leader who, after speaking to her, "refused to have [her] there and sent [her] back".
Padraigin Ni Raghillig served in the RAF between 1976 and 1986.
"I was discharged in 1986 – 'service is no longer required due to being a lesbian'," she told BFBS Forces News.
"I got no support. I was in the RAF from the age of 20. No help to find a job. No help to find a home.
"I lost everything. We all lost everything. Our homes, our jobs, our friends, everything.
"Nothing will ever repair what's happened to us, but then we have to move on at some point."
The LGBT ban was lifted in 2000, but many personnel lived secret lives until that day came.
One of those, Matt Lindley, who served in the RAF between 1995 and 2007, said he "was lying" every time he put his uniform on.
"It was a charade to myself and to everybody else," he said.
"The first half of my career was under the ban and I thought I could cope with it.
"But slowly but surely it was like a pressure cooker building, the banter, the culture."
Mr Lindley said he was lucky enough to be on 32 Squadron when the ban changed and was revoked after which he was "really looked after by the Air Force".
Etherton Medals, named after a review into the experiences of LGBT personnel, are being handed to tri-service veterans.
This will be followed by compensation becoming available in 2025, capped at £50m, but many have asked whether the amount is enough.
Mr Basely said while "you can't fix what has happened in the past", there could be "sincere and timely reparations".
However, he said with around 4,000 people expected to apply for compensation, this would only equate to £12-13,000 each – which he said "is adding insult to injury".
"Those veterans have suffered in terms of the humiliation, imprisonment, outing to their families, thrown out, homeless," he explained.
"Sexual assault, effectively, from some of the medical examinations that were forced on them.
"And you've got to remember as well that some of those people from the ban are no longer with us or they're elderly, some are terminally ill.
"They need that compensation as soon as possible so that that debate needs to happen sooner rather than later.
"And it needs to increase that cap to become a more significant compensation amount for all of those veterans."
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