Gay Today: World

British Military Admits No Good Reason for Gay Ban

Compiled By GayToday

The British Government admitted yesterday that it was difficult to provide any good reason for maintaining its policy of banning lesbians and gay men from serving in the armed forces.

The admission came as the Ministry of Defense failed to provide convincing arguments in facing the most serious legal challenge to its blanket ban. The case (Smith v MoD) had its full hearing Tuesday before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg .

The Government's legal team indicated a willingness to review the military's policy when the next Armed Forces Bill comes before Parliament in 2001.

However if, as now seems likely, the Court finds that the military ban does indeed violate the European Convention on Human Rights, Stonewall, a London-based gay activist group, believes the Government will be under impossible pressure to act sooner and bring forward a policy change.

The presiding judge, Sir Nicolas Bratza (UK), was seen to be most sympathetic to the Stonewall case and, in his questioning, asked why a new, inclusive code of conduct (that applied equally to all personnel) could not address the military's concerns about operational effectiveness.

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He made it clear that the Court would look particularly at the way in which service personnel are questioned about their sexuality prior to discharge. The Government admitted that the investigations and questioning of personnel were "intrusive and indefensible".

Angela Mason, Executive Director of Stonewall, said: "The case went very well, and was ably argued by counsel. I doubt very much whether the Court will accept that the intrusive questioning of lesbian and gay armed forces personnel is acceptable. The comments of the presiding judge make it likely that the ban will be found to violate the European Convention."

Stephen Grosz, of Bindman & Partners, said: "Having heard the Government's defense of the blanket ban, we now await the Court's judgement. The Government has clearly been unable to come up with any justification for keeping the ban."

Simon Langley, former Royal Navy Lieutenant and spokesperson for Rank Outsiders, said:

"The MoD's admission that a blanket ban can no longer be argued for is welcome news. We have always suggested a uniform code of conduct and now look forward to the lifting of the ban in the very near future and the granting to all members of society the freedom of choice to serve."