Fighting With Pride - LGBT+ Military Charity

Our Director of Marketing and Communications, Alice Farrow was honoured to be invited by Fighting With Pride - LGBT+ Military Charity to attend the National LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial Winner Announcement last week. The memorial is expected to be unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum later this year. All the entries had a huge amount of meaning and the judges had a really challenging decision. The winner was a stunning design by artist collective, the Abraxas Academy ( https://lnkd.in/exxRRien) and the design was based on words from testimonials of those impacted by the pre-2000 ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the armed forces. The memorial was one of the recommendations by Lord Etherton as part of his Independent Review published in 2023. There were speeches from Fighting With Pride's Chair Ed Hall, Chief Executive Caroline Paige MBE and Patron Sir Andrew Gregory Photo of winning design - credit Fighting With Pride

Today marks 25 years since the ban on LGBT individuals serving in the Armed Forces was lifted. This significant anniversary highlights the progress we’ve made towards creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for all who serve. This Government remains dedicated to righting historic wrongs and ensuring veterans affected by past injustices are supported. We are proud to honour the contributions of all LGBT personnel, past and present, for their service and dedication. For further support visit: https://ow.ly/NG2B50UEmtl

“These letters of love were turned into letters of evidence and turned against them.” Artist collective Abraxas Academy's winning design for the LGBT+ armed forces community memorial was based on words from testimonials of those impacted by the pre-2000 ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the armed forces. The announcement comes 25 years after the ban was lifted. Run by Fighting With Pride - LGBT+ Military Charity, the memorial will be unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum later in the year.

**Fighting With Pride (FWP) is seeking an exceptional Chief Executive to lead and inspire the organisation as it supports LGBTQ+ veterans, serving personnel, and their families.** The Chief Executive will provide strategic leadership, champion the charity’s mission, and oversee its operations, including finance, governance, fundraising, and partnerships. They will work closely with the Chair and Board of Trustees to develop and implement FWP’s strategy, fostering effective relationships with Government, military charities, and key stakeholders. For more information please click on the below link or/and contact [email protected]

**We are looking for new new Trustees to join our Board** We are currently looking for outstanding individuals with compassion, empathy, drive and collaborative thinking, to join the Board and support them in delivering the strategic plan.  We are particularly interested in hearing from those with financial and/or legal backgrounds who can help the charity to meet its obligations in these areas. Trustees will require specialist knowledge and experience of working at a senior level in one or both fields, together with an understanding of charity governance and an appreciation of trusteeship and the corresponding accountabilities. Sharing a passion for our work, Trustees will be ambassadors for FWP, initiative-takers, with strong leadership, communication and team working skills along with a talent for relationship-building. For more information please click on the below link or/and contact [email protected]

Final week to submit a design proposal for the LGBT+ Armed Forces Community Memorial.   Fighting With Pride - the LGBTQ+ Military charity, has received a significant Government grant to commission a national LGBT+ Armed Forces Community Memorial, to be located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. This installation represents a significant part of the social justice actions for the wrongs conducted by the British State over the years of the Gay Ban.   The UK Armed Forces had a ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the military from 1967 to 2000. The ban blighted the lives of 1,000s of personnel who had taken an oath to serve their country. They suffered humiliation, degrading treatment, interrogation, imprisonment, loss of rights, medals, pensions, homes, and support. Many were discharged and abandoned.   The ban was eventually lifted in 2000 and, although LGBT+ personnel are now fully integrated and valued within the UK Armed Forces, nothing was being done to right the historic wrongs of the treatment of those veterans who lost their careers, freedoms, and future because of this gross injustice.   In 2023 Lord Etherton’s LGBT Veterans Independent Review made recommendations for restorative action.  Part of that was the recommendation of a lasting memorial to LGBT+ Armed Forces Community members' service and sacrifice, past, present, and future. He recommended that this memorial be funded by the UK Government and in April 2024 the contract was awarded to Fighting With Pride for £350,000 to produce and install this memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.   The intention is to manufacture and install the piece, inspired by the thoughts of the LGBT+ Armed Forces Community, in time for the remembrance season of 2025 as this coincides with the 25th anniversary year of the lifting of ‘The Gay Ban’.   The LGBT+ Armed Forces Community consultation of veterans, serving personnel, reservists, cadet forces and families resulted in a design brief which can be found here.    https://lnkd.in/eyQM9uAf   The deadline for submission of design proposals is 19th of November, following which a shortlisting process will happen. The artists selected for the shortlist will be provided with a grant for the completion of their proposal with a maquette to be presented at an interview event at the beginning of January 2025. The winning design will be chosen and announced as part of the anniversary events of the actual 25th anniversary of the lifting of the ban, 12 January 2025.  

The National LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial has reached another important milestone on its journey to providing a focal point for the recognition of the service and sacrifice of members of the LGBT community throughout the Armed Forces. The memorial team, Roly Woods and Kevin Bazeley, and our Steering Group thank everyone who took the time to attend our workshops and briefings. Especially, we want to thank the nearly 300 people who submitted their survey responses which formed the detail of our design brief That significant consultation effort with our community has resulted in the creation of a design brief which is now available to the artist community for them use to inspire their proposals. Interested parties can now access the design brief on this link: https://lnkd.in/eyQM9uAf This will also be the link where they will make their submissions to the competition, closing date of 19th November 2024. We look forward to seeing the submissions for this important and exciting piece to be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire next year. A shortlist of artists is expected to be announced in the first week of December 2024 after their selection by a judging panel. The 7-person judging panel will comprise LGBT serving personnel and veterans, representatives from FWP, a representative from Royal British Legion, a representative from the National Memorial Arboretum, an expert representative from the Royal Society of Sculptors and an independent art advisor.

LGBT ARMED FORCES COMMUNITY MEMORIAL WORKSHOP - CARDIFF Yesterday saw the final LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial Regional workshop take place in the RoyalBritish Legion offices in Cardiff city centre today. Another great session with lots of good ideas captured, along with a dynamic exchange of views. Delighted to welcome #JamesPhillips, the Veterans’ Commissioner For Wales, to the workshop and to hear his views. As a member of the LGBT Armed Forces Community (LGBT veteran or serving personnel, reservists, cadet forces, families and friends) you still have an opportunity to contribute to the memorial project via the survey which is open until 10 Oct. The link is here: https://lnkd.in/e4fK_DHc We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks to RoyalBritish Legion Cardiff and the amazing #RuthBirch for their excellent support with arrangements. #FightingWithPride #FWP #lgbtveterans #RoyalBritishLegion

Today marks 25 years since the historic battle and subsequent victory in the European Court of Human Rights finding the ban on LGBT+ people serving in the British Armed Forces illegal. This directly resulted in the ban being finally lifted on the 12th January 2000. From this moment on, LGBT+ people could openly and proudly serve their country without fear of investigation, arrest, assault and immediate dismissal, as so many had to endure before them. The court case was fought using the evidence of four gay service personnel who had been discharged under the ban and were determined to see it overturned. With legal support provided by Stonewall, and multiple setbacks in British courts to overcome, Graeme Grady, Jeanette Smith, Duncan Lustig-Prean and our very own John Beckett persevered and the case was won on 27th September 1999. This changed the course of LGBT+ rights in the British Armed Forces forever. The legal challenge came with thanks to our own Chair, Ed Hall, who had initiated and set up the Armed Forces Legal Challenge Group as a dismissed RN veteran, gaining the support of Rank Outsiders and Stonewall Rank Outsiders were the support group of gay veterans who had formed to support gay personnel dismissed from the services and were leading a campaign against the ban. When the was ban was lifted and ‘the fight was won’, the military began its transition to be openly inclusive and Rank Outsiders disbanded. But nothing then happened to find and support the veterans impacted by the ban, for decades afterwards until FWP formed, launching on the 20th anniversary, but that is a story for the new year. Although 25 years have passed, we are still fighting to secure fair and swift recompense and justice for our community of ban-affected LGBT+ Veterans, and those service personnel who had been falsely accused of being LGBT+. Although the story for veterans didn't stop 25 years ago, what was achieved by 'The Strasbourg 4' and those involved in supporting the legal challenge, to ensure no one else had to endure what others had for the crime of being themselves and serving their country, was revolutionary. Check out this Allied Press archival footage of the case being heard in 1995: https://lnkd.in/emD6GJRQ 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️