{"id":750664,"date":"2026-08-26T20:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/750664\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:26:11","slug":"wes-streeting-describes-unbelievable-volume-of-homophobic-abuse-since-becoming-defence-secretary-wes-streeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/750664\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting describes \u2018unbelievable volume\u2019 of homophobic abuse since becoming defence secretary | Wes Streeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wes Streeting has described receiving a mass of homophobic abuse since he was made defence secretary last month, while also saying his appointment had been welcomed by some in the Ministry of Defence<\/a> (MoD) as a sign of change.<\/p>\n

Until 2000, gay men and lesbian women were banned from serving in the UK military, with about 200-plus personnel thrown out of the forces each year due to their sexuality \u2013 an estimate, as proper records were not kept.<\/p>\n

Streeting, who is the first out gay defence secretary, told the All Talk podcast hosted by Iain Dale: \u201cI have experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelievable volume \u2013 because people cannot cope with the idea that a gay person might lead the armed forces of the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cAnd I have two things to say in response to that. One is, firstly, being the first openly gay defence secretary has been almost entirely unremarked upon in the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think, \u2018Great, here we are in the third decade of the 21st century and it doesn\u2019t matter, brilliant.\u2019 But of course, online it matters to a lot of people. And I am proud of the fact that in my lifetime we\u2019ve gone from gay people not being able to serve in the military to a gay defence secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Keir Starmer\u2019s government set up<\/a> the LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme, under which personnel who were dismissed or discharged because of the ban in place from 1967 to 2000 can apply for payments of up to \u00a370,000.<\/p>\n

Some MPs have since expressed concern<\/a> at what they say is the slow pace of processing claims, while two veterans have begun legal action<\/a> to challenge the fact that personnel who were forced to resign, rather than being dismissed or discharged, receive lower payments.<\/p>\n

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Streeting told the podcast: \u201cIn my first week, someone in the MoD said to me, \u2018As a gay man, I\u2019m really proud that we have our first gay defence secretary. It means a lot to us who remember the bad old days.\u2019 So I was quite touched by that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the stuff online, I sort of think one of the wonderful things about today\u2019s day and age is that we get to show just how strong we are. I see strength in all sorts of places in the LGBT community and people living normal, dull, suburban lives. It\u2019s ordinary now being gay in Britain, which is brilliant.<\/p>\n

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, last month unveiled plans to test US service personnel for their levels of testosterone. Photograph: Leon Neal\/Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also look at service personnel, athletes now with some footballers coming out, we have got strength in numbers and we\u2019ve got strength in confidence. It\u2019s an opportunity for me to demonstrate strength in this role as well and to challenge the sort of stereotype that clearly persists in dark corners of the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of Streeting\u2019s role involves liaising with Pete Hegseth, the US\u2019s more stereotypically traditional defence secretary, who last month unveiled plans<\/a> to test US service personnel for their levels of testosterone.<\/p>\n

Like others in the Trump administration, Hegseth is a vehement opponent of equality and inclusion. Last year, he ordered<\/a> the renaming of a US navy ship named in honour of Harvey Milk, the murdered navy veteran, gay rights activist and politician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting has described receiving a mass of homophobic abuse since he was made defence secretary last month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-750664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}