UK’s first LGBTQ+ veterans memorial to be created

Minister for veterans’ affairs, Johnny Mercer with chair of Fighting With Pride Craig Jones. (Fighting With Pride) Fighting with Pride has been awarded a grant to help create the UK’s first memorial to LGBTQ+ veterans, but the charity has called on the government to be quicker to repay the compensation promised. The LGBTQ+ veterans charity, which campaigned to get justice for servicemen and women affected by the pre-2000 ban on homosexuality in the armed forces, has been awarded a £350,000 government grant to create the memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Up until 2000, LGBTQ+ people were banned from serving in the British military. Many veterans were court-martialled or forced to leave without a stable income or pension. ‘This memorial will be very important’ The chairperson of Fighting With Pride, Craig Jones, told PinkNews the memorial would honour those in the LGBTQ+ community “who were treated with great cruelty in the service of the United Kingdom”. Jones added: “They stepped forward over many decades to serve at the frontline of operations all over the world, but were hunted down, dismissed and lost from the service.  “Some were lost in battle. Others were lost because of the ban. This...