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UK: MoD gay dismissals up 30%

01 November 1997

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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced that the number of people dismissed from the armed forces on account of their homosexuality went up by 30% in the last year. Sackings are now at their highest since 1990. The news was released during the same week that the UK presented its legal defence of the gay ban in the services in a case where the government is being taken to court by former service men and women who were dismissed.

The news that the MoD is pressing ahead with its defence came at the same time as it announced a major initiative to stamp out racial and sexual discrimination. Entitled "British Army sets the standards for equal opportunities", it boasts that Chief of the General Staff, Sir Roger Wheeler, "will be promoting equal opportunities and eradicating all discrimination." The MoD does however retain its unique interpretation of equal opportunities, stating that: "our policy of barring homosexuals from serving in the military is not discrimination."

Pink Paper, 17.10.97.

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