‘It was a witch-hunt. It’s not an exaggerated term at all.' A new documentary sheds light on stories of the LGBT+ men and women who were dishonourably discharged from the armed forces before the abhorrent ‘gay ban’ was finally overturned in 2000.
However, in 1987, Elaine was subjected to false allegations of making ‘unwanted advances’ on two female nurses, claims that she strenuously denied – and she had to endure the military police literally going through her ‘dirty laundry’ before she confirmed her sexual orientation to them in an interrogation.
‘I had to carry that guilt with me for years, I felt guilty because I’d kept a letter or a diary, and people have to remember this is pre-social media era. The way we communicated was the old fashioned letters. Most of us had letters galore in our possession and why shouldn’t we? They belong to us and they should have been private property.’
‘I said, “Before we discuss this, do you mind if I go and get dressed?” I went upstairs into the bathroom and I just looked in the mirror. I said to myself, “Well, that’s the end of that.” That was the beginning of the end as far as I was concerned. It’s a bit cloudy after that. Taken away, interrogated… luckily for me, because of my rank. I wasn’t officially imprisoned as it were. If I’d have been a junior, that could’ve happened.
‘Elaine rang and we ended up talking for about three hours or something. I think for both of us, it was the first time we’d actually spoken to somebody who knew what it felt like, and from there we arranged to meet up. The rest is history,’ Robert shared, while Elaine described that first phone call as ‘cathartic’. The pair felt as though they’d known each other for years when they met in person for the first time in London.
Ed had been in the royal navy from 1986 to 1988, and was sacked because he informed the navy that he was gay, after leading what he described as a ‘complicated’ and ‘double’ life. When he was forced out of his position, Ed wanted to know where the ban had come from in the first place.
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