The words of Joe Ousalice, Falklands veteran.

Ex-military personnel dismissed from the armed forces because of their sexuality can now reclaim lost medals.

Under a new scheme to remedy historical injustices, former service personnel can apply to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to restore honours.

Each application will be reviewed by the defence council, with the MoD's medal office arranging new honours to be awarded to those who are successful.

Relatives of former personnel affected by the LGBTQ+ ban but who have since died will also be able to make applications for a review.

Yes. People once again being criminalized. Stripped of their medals, and for what? Their sexuality.

 In 2021, exactly 28 years later, Joe Ousalice, a Falklands veteran, and any other veterans can finally claim their rightful medals back. Let’s not hesitate to recall that the Ministry of Defence did not just willingly decide to take up these cases and acknowledge their due reparations. No. Joe Ousalice had to threaten to sue, and campaign and fight, yes fight for his hard-earned medals. Honestly, that’s just embarrassing. The British government should have done better.

Being queer is such an impediment and will cause inevitable, lethal insanity on the battlefield, right? If there was a word for rolling my eyes almost to the back of my head, it would be in bold caps locks right now. Your sexuality apparently defines your ability to work. British prejudice, once again at its finest. You can’t serve in your own country because of your sexuality? Serving for the army in your own country? I would say that I’m confused but I’m not. Disappointed, but not surprised.

British policy never ceases to baffle me, and the rest of the world for that matter, in positively ridiculous laws and rules against LGBTQIA+ people. A ban on bisexual, lesbian and gay people serving in the army was lifted just in 2000. Britain has come a long way, in their acceptance, but honestly allowing human beings to be able to work however, and wherever they want is basic human decency. I was shocked to find out transgender people were only officially allowed to openly serve in 2014. Wow. Really just leaping and bounding and jumping right into the bare minimum. Unfortunately, Britain is one of the most progressive countries globally on the human decency scale. We should not, however be content and settle for this, there is a LONG way to go, to reach equality for the LGBTQIA+ community.

LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer plus. Being a lesbian means that you identify as female and are attracted to other women. Being gay is identifying as male and being attracted to men, but often women call themselves gay instead of lesbian, and some LGBTQ+ people chose to use 'gay' as a general term to describe their sexualities. Being bisexual is when you are attracted to both males and females, and under the 'bisexual umbrella' are other sexualities, including; pansexual (attraction to all genders regardless of biological and/or expressed gender), omnisexual (essentially the same as pansexual but recognising the gender of those they feel attracted to, although it doesn't play a huge role in their feelings), and polysexual (attraction to most genders, but not all). Note: there are over fifty gender identities, not just male, female and non-binary. Being transgender means you identify as a different gender to the one you were born as; one may be biologically male but identifies as female, uses female pronouns and chooses to display feminine attributes. Queer is essentially a term that covers all of these things and is often used by people who haven't decided their sexuality yet - it can also stand for 'questioning'. The plus encompasses all other elements of sexuality, including A-sexuality and greysexuality, as well as those who are intersex. Some people say LGBTQIA+ instead of LGBTQ+.

Charities
you can support or Places for Support:
https://lgbt.foundation/ - general LGBTQIA+ support, help and awareness
https://mindout.org.uk/ - LGBTQIA+ mental health support and wellbeing
https://bornthisway.foundation/get-help-now/ - general support
 
FREE PETITIONS TO SIGN:
https://allout.org/en - DIFFERENT PETITIONS TO SIGN
https://www.change.org/p/mateusz-morawiecki-pass-laws-that-would-protect-lgbt-people-in-poland-and-abolish-current-anti-lgbt-laws?source_location=topic_page                                      – POLAND
LGBTQ+ protection