Equal in arms
Kevin Bazeley was thrown out of the RAF for being gay – now he’s helping the Armed Forces to embrace inclusion
Courtesy of Kevin Bazeley
- Rosie Millard
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This year, an important anniversary is being acknowledged ahead of Remembrance Sunday. It’s been 25 years since the Government lifted the ban on gay people serving in the Armed Forces. For Kevin Bazeley, however, it was too late. The ban affected his entire life because when he was in the forces it was a criminal offence to be gay, punishable by court martial and even imprisonment.
Bazeley’s story will be featured in the annual Festival of Remembrance event at London’s Royal Albert Hall. As well as the familiar poppy drop, commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, military music, the attendance of hundreds of members of the Armed Forces and performances by artists such as Sir Rod Stewart, the event will feature a film on how this most egregious of wrongs was put right a quarter of a century ago.
“Joining the RAF was my childhood dream,” Bazeley tells RT, just before the unveiling in October of a memorial to LGBTQ+ members of the Armed Forces at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, which was attended by King Charles. Bazeley, too, was at the ceremony.
“I was 18 when I joined in 1985, straight from school. I trained as a navigator and served in the first Gulf War. Then I went to RAF Kinloss in Scotland where I flew on Nimrod aircraft.” However, as the years went by and even though he was married with two daughters, he realised his true sexuality hadn’t been acknowledged, even by himself.
King Charles at the unveiling of the memorial to LGBTQ+ members of the Armed Forces. Alamy
“In 1993 I separated from my wife, but I couldn’t tell her why because it was illegal to be gay in the RAF.” A year later, while at RAF Kinloss, disaster struck. “I had joined the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club and I lost my membership card somewhere on the base.”
Several weeks of anxiety followed. “The military police were intense in their searches to root out gay people. The moment any suspicion fell on someone they were followed, their rooms were searched and they were interrogated with forced medical examinations.” And so Bazeley waited. “I lost my card in June. For the next seven weeks every morning I’d wake up and think, ‘Is today the day?’ On 4 August, we landed back from a training flight and the Squadron Wing Commander met the aircraft, which was unusual. He asked me to follow him and I knew it was the end of my career.”
Bazeley was handed over to the Special Investigation Branch and taken to a dark and dingy interview room. “I knew I was done,” he says. He was subjected to “very personal” interrogations from his superior officers. “They would ask me the same questions over and over. My world was gone. Everything I worked towards had gone.”
Put under house arrest, he never got to speak to his team again. The only person who spoke to him was a young flight lieutenant called Richard Knighton. “He’s now Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Chief of the Defence Staff. His support has been amazing,” says Bazeley. “He’s the only person who has kept in touch.”
My world was gone. Everything I'd worked towards was gone
Bazeley was discharged in September 1995 – five years before the law that made it illegal to be homosexual in the armed forces was overturned on 12 January 2000.
After being forced out of the RAF, Bazeley retrained and spent the next 27 years working as an accountant for GE Aviation [now GE Aerospace]. Since 2022, he has campaigned for inclusion and diversity, working with the Armed Forces’ charity, Fighting with Pride. In 2023, the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made an apology on behalf of the state to the LGBTQ+ Armed Forces community, many of whom will be present at the Royal Albert Hall. “We had our medals, ranks and berets restored, and were welcomed back into the military family,” says Bazeley. There was also financial recognition: “A £50,000 Dismissal Payment, and also an Impact Payment, judged by a panel, from £1,000 up to £20,000, which is open for claims until 12 December 2026.”
What are his feelings on the 25th anniversary of the lifting of the ban? “I will forever be disappointed that it’s not the 30th anniversary because then I wouldn’t have been thrown out.” Bazeley did, however, play a part in the project to create the memorial to LGBTQ+ members of the Armed Forces. A folded sheet of bronze on a Yorkstone base, it represents a letter between loved ones, found and used in evidence to dismiss someone.
“It’s an incredible piece of art,” says Bazeley. “It reflects the pain and sacrifice of the veterans but is full of hope for the future. Because in all conflicts there were gay people. And they fought and died alongside everyone else.”
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Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph is on Sunday 10.15am on BBC One
Authors
Rosie Millard
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