Justice still hasn’t been done for the LGBT+ people the army once banned

Two decades have passed since the ban was lifted on openly gay people serving in the UK armed services, on 12 January 2000. That was a welcome step towards full equality in one of the more conservative parts of British society, yet the wheels of justice have turned exceedingly slowly since then.

An important part of recognising equal rights is making amends for past injustices. By ending discrimination in the military on grounds of sexual orientation, as required by the European Court of Human Rights, the British state accepted that the victims of such discrimination had been wronged.

As we report today, the government knows of more than 150 people who were discharged from the armed forces because of their sexuality. But this figure, compiled by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), records only the number of people who have applied for compensation – there could be many more who have suffered unfairly.

The MoD should be praised for compensating those who were badly treated, and for belatedly agreeing to restore medals to LGBT+ former personnel who were stripped of them when discharged, but it has taken too long. The ministry has resisted good claims unnecessarily; it should be doing more to seek out those who suffered, and it should be doing more to put things right.

It was only this month, for example, that the MoD agreed to restore Joe Ousalice’s long service and good conduct medal that was taken from him when he was forced out of the royal navy in 1993, because his bisexuality was “prejudicial to good order and naval discipline”. The MoD accepted that its policy had been “wrong, discriminatory and unjust” – in which case it has to be asked why it refused to return the medal for so long.

The Cabinet Office has now set up a scheme for restoring medals to those who forfeited them because of their sexual orientation, but it feels like a long, slow and reluctant admission of a past error.

Just as the Turing law, in the form of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, did not go far enough in pardoning gay men criminalised by historical laws against homosexuality, so the law and rules of the armed services have not yet caught up with where they need to be.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, could help to convince us that this really is a liberal One Nation government by taking this issue seriously and doing the right thing.

It is striking that all what Mr Ousalice wants is an apology – and to have his medal returned to him by a rear-admiral, as it was originally awarded by one. The compensation and restoration of medals is important to these people who served their country, but just as important is their honour, and rightly so. It should be respected by the government on behalf of us all.