Fighting with Pride: Military charity supporting LGBT+ veterans launches in Scotland
A military charity that supports LGBT+ veterans is now launching its services in Scotland.
Fighting With Pride (FWP) works with veterans and other organisations to improve support and help right the wrongs experienced before the ban on LGBT+ service – the 'gay ban' – was lifted.
The charity, set up in 2020 on the 20th anniversary of the complete lifting of the ban on LGBT+ service, provides support for not only those LGBT+ veterans who suffered during their service but those who continue to do so years later.
FWP is now launching its services in Scotland to support the health and wellbeing of LGBT+ veterans, service personnel and their families – in particular those most impacted by the ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the Armed Forces prior to January 2000.
While attitudes are changing, the charity says there is still work to be done.
An independent review of the impact of the ban shows that many people who served before 2000 still need support today, as some saw their careers destroyed and are still feeling the effects years later.
At the launch in Scotland, the charity's Dougie Morgan said: "These veterans really need looking after. They went 40 years without any support and all of a sudden... Fighting With Pride's come along and opened Pandora's box and now these veterans are reliving their experience of being thrown out of the military."
The charity's website says that before the ban was lifted "thousands of LGBT+ service personnel were removed or forced from service and abandoned, after serving with pride".
"In the years ahead, it is our aim to restore the military covenant and bring this community back into the military family," FWP says.
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