King Charles III unveiled a memorial to Britain’s LGBTQ service members on Monday.
This monument is located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Burton-on-Trent, England.
“We see and pay our respects to our LGBT+ service members and veterans,” the palace said in a social media post that included a video of Prince Charles laying flowers at the memorial.
“Throughout the 20th century, homosexual men, lesbians and bisexual people were prohibited from serving in the British armed forces,” the report added.
We look at all our LGBT+ service members and veterans and salute you. 🌈
This afternoon at the National Memorial Arboretum, the King attended the inauguration of a new monument honoring all LGBT+ people who have served and continue to serve. pic.twitter.com/tEbkzsQHTG
— Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 27, 2025
“Today marks a historic step toward healing and reconciliation.” British Ministry of Defence.
The BBC points out that gay military personnel could not serve openly in the UK until 2000.
Monday’s ceremony is Charles’ first. “Formal engagement” We support LGBTQ rights.
Her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, gave royal assent to the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act, which decriminalized consensual sexual relations between men over the age of 21 in England and Wales, and the 2014 law extending marriage rights to same-sex couples in England and Wales. Among other things, Queen Elizabeth also pardoned Alan Turing, the famous World War II codebreaker and computer scientist who died by suicide two years later. In 1952, he was convicted of “gross indecency.”
In 2023, then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak apologized to LGBTQ service members who had “endured the most appalling sexual abuse, violence, homophobic bullying and harassment while bravely serving this country”.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
