LGBTQ

Senior Army General Considers Coming Out

A senior British Army general is considering coming out as gay. He would be the most senior military official to do so if he did.

In an interview with the Mail he is now debating with his family and friends whether to publicly come out in the near future.

Having been warned against doing so by friends and colleagues saying such an admission would be career suicide, remarks by a senior officer only prompted him to go against those recommendations and counter the view by disclosing his homosexuality.

He refutes the suggestion that gays and lesbians in the military do not face discrimination.

‘The Armed Forces cannot claim it is an equal opportunities employer when the view persists that any senior officer who announces he is gay will see his or her career go up in smoke’

The general has kept his sexuality secret since joining the services 25 years ago when it would have been illegal to be gay and in the armed forces. He recalled that back then, homosexuality was regarded as a “perversion” and that for years he battled with his sexual identity, and accepted it once he was already married and with a family, in his mid 30s.

The general said there were officers of all ranks who were concerned about going public with their sexuality because of the possible negative effects. He was part of ‘small number of senior officers in the Army, RAF and Royal Navy who have decided to keep their sexuality secret because of the potential impact it might have on their career’.

He continued to say: ‘It might come as a shock to some people but there have been and there are gay members of the SAS. I have met them.

‘That part of my life has always been separate and effectively secret.’