Trump's rollback of military rights a warning to UK troops, says prominent campaigner

A former Royal Navy officer who was dismissed from the Armed Forces in 1989 for being gay has warned those serving today not to take their rights for granted, describing them as "hard-won".

Ed Hall issued the warning ahead of the re-release of his book, We Can't Even March Straight, marking 30 years since its original publication in 1995.

Speaking to BFBS Forces News, Mr Hall highlighted what he described as a "row back of rights" for LGBT personnel in other parts of the world, including the United States.

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He cited Donald Trump's ban on transgender military service and the renaming of the USS Harvey Milk – a US Navy support ship that had previously honoured the assassinated gay rights activist.

Mr Hall said part of his reason for republishing the book was concern that across Nato "not everyone is feeling as safe and positive as the UK at the moment" when it comes to LGBT service.

"There are allies where service for LGBT people is challenging," he said.

We Can't Even March Straight was seen as a seminal work when it first came out. At the time, it was still illegal to be gay in Britain's Armed Forces, and Mr Hall had himself been discharged from the Royal Navy after it was discovered he was homosexual.

Rank Outsiders

By the early 1990s, he was working as a journalist in London. Alongside other ex-servicemen and women, he joined a campaign group called Rank Outsiders, which brought a legal challenge against the Ministry of Defence over its ban on homosexuality.

But it was the book, Mr Hall believes, that helped ignite a national debate on what was then often called "gays in the military".

"It was all sparked by Don't Ask, Don't Tell [a US military policy enacted in 1993 which permitted service by gay personnel on the condition they did not disclose their sexuality]," he explained.

"President Clinton had been elected in the US on this really clear promise that he would lift the ban on gay service in the military… and it had got a huge amount of attention.

"Once he got into office, he realised that his relationship with the Pentagon wasn't strong enough, nor was his relationship with the Chiefs of Staff. And actually, he wasn't able to lift the ban.

"The media's attention suddenly looked to the UK and asked, 'Well, what are you going to do here?'."  

He continued: "It struck me that nobody had ever written down the experience that people had had – and what the ban meant."

Although the ban was eventually lifted in January 2000, Mr Hall pointed out that successive UK governments had fought against it in every court available, ultimately losing at the European Court of Human Rights.

Reflecting on that time, he stressed the importance of remembering the struggle, especially in an era before the internet was widespread.

"Our history as a community very easily gets lost in different people's memories, recollections and deleted pages on websites that have since been rebuilt," he said. "We have to work hard to make sure we don't end up falsely remembering what happened."

A quarter of a century on from the lifting of the ban, Mr Hall says the UK is now seen as a global leader in LGBT inclusion across the defence sector.

A time of inclusion

But his connection to that history goes beyond writing about it.

Today, he is chair of the charity Fighting With Pride, which supports veterans affected by the ban.

The organisation recently led the campaign to secure financial recognition for those who lost their careers, some of whom were imprisoned by military police.

In December 2024, the government announced that veterans impacted by the ban would receive £50,000 each – a "reparation payment" for lost income and pensions.

But the scheme has since experienced delays, with thousands of veterans still awaiting payments and no clear timeframe for when funds will be received.

As a result, Mr Hall has once again stepped up his campaigning. Just last week, he and the chief executive of Fighting With Pride met Veterans Minister Al Carns to demand answers over the delays.

"We are still campaigning, all these years on," Mr Hall said. "We met the minister last week to make sure that the reparations that have been promised are actually delivered.

"The reality is – and anybody who follows news on compensation schemes from government will know this – it's very easy for politicians to make promises and even allocate funds.

"But to get the funds to end up where they are supposed to be... that's a challenge, and it can be really, really slow.

"And so we are continuing to lobby, day in, day out, to make sure the reparations that have been promised are actually delivered.

"I was pleased to see Al Carns listen to that and accept that things can be done more quickly. And since our meeting, things have already been changed; more people have been allocated to the team."

We Can't Even March Straight – the 30th anniversary edition – by Edmund Hall is available now.