The LGBT Foundation
The LGBT Foundation were awarded £25,000 for their project Operation Equality: Expanding our Support. The grant has enabled the LGBT Foundation’s Wellbeing Services to expand across the LGBT+ Armed Forces community, building wider peer networks and providing affirming spaces for service users.
In practice, this has meant additional hours on their national helpline, which is open to all individuals who identify as LGBT+, as well as their families and friends. The helpline provides emotional support, brief interventions, advice and signposting to local support to meet the needs identified on the call. This includes referral into the Operation Equality project.
The helpline service provides lifesaving support to thousands of people each year. The additional hours have enabled more than 2,000 calls to be handled. Between August and October 2023, the helpline received 61 safeguarding concerns and 23 safeguarding incidents.
A core part in the service is helping Veterans to understand options and support available to them. This is in relation to prior convictions being disregarded and pardoned, financial recompense for discrimination based upon gender reassignment, community safety and financial recompense for loss of earnings and subsequent pension after being forced to sign off early due to the ban.
Thuy-Vi Huynh, Operation Equality Co-ordinator/Helpline & Intake Officer at LGBT Foundation adds: “‘I have a friend who was dismissed from the Army for being gay. Herself and eight others were dismissed on the same day in 1967/1966.
She is now 76 – How would I support her with restorative justice and possible compensation?
She suffered as a result of the dismissal.’ – We receive requests for support like this from Veterans, serving personnel, and their friends and family, who reach out to us to seek support for the complex and unique challenges that not only comes from Service life, but also the lasting impacts that were as a result of the ‘Gay Ban.’
“The funding that we have received from the Armed Forces Covenant Trust has allowed us to support Veterans, serving personnel, and those impacted by the ban through emotional support, signposting and onward referrals, holding social events and group support spaces, and providing information on restorative justice measures for those impacted.
“Our service users have felt safe and grateful for the ways we have been able to hold space for them thanks to the funding, allowing them to share their stories openly and vulnerably with us, with one service user saying “[thank] you so much for understanding my situation and the care you offered to me, I will never forget [the] space you [gave] me to speak.”