LGBT veterans will not wear their award badges until compensation is paid

LGBT veterans were awarded special badges to mark the injustice they faced, saying they would not wear them until the government paid reparations.

Representatives from the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force attended a ceremony in Westminster on Tuesday to receive the first thousand pin badges planned for those who served from 1967-2000, when it was illegal to be gay in the military.

But the group told Defense Secretary John Healey it would not wear the badge until all 49 of the independent report’s recommendations were implemented, including financial compensation for those affected.

The Ministry of Defense has not responded to a request for comment.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in the UK in 1967 but the ban continued in the armed forces.

Badges are one of the recommendations Lord Ethertonwhich conducted an independent review of the treatment of LGBT veterans under the ban, said the government must make reparations.

But the group told the defense secretary it was prepared to give up the badge if other recommendations were not acted upon quickly.

Former soldier Stephen Closeone of the first veterans to receive the ribbon-shaped badge, at a private ceremony, in Whitehall, central London, said: “This must be resolved and the wrongs righted – then I will be very happy to wear the ribbon.”

He welcomed the award as “a symbol of our struggle”, Mr Close, 62, told BBC News, but “the struggle is not over” so it was “a bit premature”.

Mr Close was dismissed from the Army after officers learned he had kissed another man while stationed in Berlin in the 1980s.

After interrogations and a “humiliating and humiliating medical examination”, Mr Close was convicted of indecency – a sexual offense – for the kiss, dismissed from the Army and sent to a military prison for four months.

His convictions were ignored in 2013, as part of plans in England and Wales to allow past convictions for same-sex offenses that are no longer criminal to be removed.

But Mr Close said he was “just a broken man” after leaving the Army.

“It wasn’t until I returned to civilian life and started looking for work that I discovered I had a sex violation on my record,” he said.

“I can’t get any jobs.”

At LGBT Veteran Independent Reviewled by England’s first gay judge, Lord Etherton, begins in 2022 and hears the experiences of 1,145 veterans.

These include accounts of homophobia, bullying, blackmail, sexual assault, “shameful” medical examinations and conversion therapy.

Lord Etherton’s report recommended compensation – capped at a total of £50m – be paid to those affected by the ban.

Other recommendations include a special LGBT veterans’ memorial, the return of medals and berets and clarification of pension rights.

A National Audit Office Report said up to 4,000 veterans are expected to be eligible for compensation, meaning the average payout could be about £12,500.

But Mr Close said: “It won’t pay the credit card bill.

“I was sentenced when I was 20 years old.

“You’re up to 50, (I have) a criminal record.

“I couldn’t save anything – I had no pension, no savings, I never went on holiday.

“Now I’m going to retire and I won’t get anything.

“They’re offering £12,500 for everything?

“We’ve had many, many insults … and this is just one.”

Sailor Emma Riley, 52, presented the ribbon next to Mr Close, saying: “I can’t wear this yet.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate and right to implement it until all the recommendations of the independent review are complete – and especially the more difficult ones, like financial compensation.

“It’s the harder thing that’s really going to make a difference for veterans who are literally being destroyed — their lives are being destroyed.”

Craig Jones, of the campaign group Fighting with Pride, said the amount offered “risks being seen as an insult”.

“Failure to consider the appalling treatment meted out to a community of veterans who defend our peace and freedom, but to be treated in the way the prime minister says has humiliated our nation,” he said.

The campaign has also previously raised concerns old or sick veterans requiring compensation to be paid sooner.