Craig Jones MBE, Joint CEO at Fighting With Pride

In 1989, just before training began, “I realised, that I'd bought this copy of the Radio Times because it had a picture of Michael Ball on the front cover and… let me tell you that 30 years ago, Michael Ball was quite hot property...”

 “…I thought well, ‘that's an incredible complication because in three weeks' time, I'm going to Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and that doesn't fit.’ But it just didn't seem relevant… the only people I thought might be gay were Larry Grayson and perhaps John Inman, and quite frankly, I didn't identify with those people. But what I did identify with was this amazing, exciting career that lay ahead of me… and I parked all the gay stuff and walked through those gates...”

 The ban on gay people Serving in the Armed Forces lifted in 2000. Several years later, ‘Fighting with Pride’ began as a book, “…I was concerned that the story of the amazing careers of the years of the ban were being lost, so I brought together a group of 10 people who all wrote a chapter… but when we… were ready to launch, we realised that… we were angry… about the fact that nobody has gone back to pick up our fallen, for those who have struggled in the years beyond the ban, and who live lives, which are not those that we would wish of any Veteran...” 

 Fighting with Pride charity was formed on the 20th anniversary of the lifting of the ban, “…And our journey is beginning to make a difference.”

 

Hosted by Steve Bomford and Mike Davis-Marks.

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