Service personnel and veterans urged to take part in survey on LGBT Memorial

A team of veterans working on a memorial for LGBT service personnel is calling on those serving in the military to contribute their ideas to the design of the planned monument.

LGBT veterans secured 49 recommendations from an inquiry, including an apology from the Prime Minister, financial compensation for those impacted by the ban and the building of a memorial in honour of those who have served. 

Now, as the design phase of the project approaches, current serving personnel are being encouraged to complete a survey that will help inform what the finished memorial will look like.

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The project is being led by Fighting With Pride, a charity supporting those impacted by the ban on LGBT people serving in the UK Armed Forces.

The ban was lifted in January 2000 but before then thousands of LGBT service personnel were removed or forced from service and stripped of any recognition for their service.

Talking to BFBS Forces News, Kevin Bazeley, a former navigator in the Royal Air Force, said the memorial is not just about LGBT veterans, but instead for the "entire LGBT Armed Forces community".

Mr Bazeley joined the RAF in 1985 when he was 18.

Ten years later, his sexuality became known to the military when a lost wallet of his containing incriminating evidence was handed to the chain of command. 

As it was still illegal to be gay in the Armed Forces at that time, Mr Bazeley was removed from service following a "very personal" interrogation by officials. 

Mr Bazeley said: "For years during the ban, LGBT members of the Armed Forces were completely marginalised, we had to hide ourselves.

"If we were discovered, we were thrown out."

The memorial, once designed, will be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum, the UK's location of monuments dedicated to those who have served in the military.

Mr Bazeley said the memorial was intended to encompass LGBT people in all sections of the Armed Forces community, including veterans and those serving right now.

"It is very clear that we need to get consultation from as many members of the community as possible as to what they would like to see in the design," he said.

"[The memorial] is part of that reparations and recognition process of making good of harms of the past, reflecting that our service was as good as everybody else's, albeit it wasn’t wanted at the time."

The former navigator added: "We need a place where we can reflect on what happened to people, but at the same time we need to look forward – which is why it is so important that it is a memorial for the entire Armed Forces community."

Current serving military personnel and veterans can complete the LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial survey here. The survey closes on Thursday 10 October.