I can see where both Busby & Stevienics are coming from and have my own views. Yes the military were slow to change the rules to be in line with broader society but i am not convinced that being behind was necessarily all wrong.
Busby claims the rules were abhorrent to broader society - i am not convinced that was true at the time, society at large had (rightly) certainly become much more accepting of the gay community but there were (and still are) pockets of resistance who saw it as wrong and condemned the changes to the military rules. We must also remember that the services sometimes need to serve in other parts of the world - sometimes in countries where even to be accused of being gay is enough to see a capital sentence imposed. There were also concerns in the 90's when i was still in about the practicalities of the situation - were there dangers about, for example, gay NCOs abusing junior personnel; even today stories occasionally surface about male NCOs abusing female personnel so the prospect of even more cases of abuse of a new type would not have been welcome 25 years ago.
Similarly, like Stevie, during my time in the 70's through to 99, there were many individuals of both sexes who were widely believed or acknowledged to be batting for the other side, yet the only cases i knew of where such individuals had faced sanctions were cases where they had brought themselves to 'official' attention through being caught 'cottaging' or using it as a lever to avoid going to GW1 or announcing it loudly to a large group in a pub.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the rules, the individuals knew the rules at the time and chose to continue serving and took that risk. If their conduct at the time, insofar as it affected the service was acceptable then Good Conduct badges & medals should not have been forfeited and if any were 'fitted up' to be charged, as one individual has alleged, then there is an issue there. But the services have always lost good people who would have had good (or better) careers if they had been able to conform to the rules - medical fitness, deployability, matrimonial presssures have all over time taken good tradesmen out of the services but it isn't possible to amend all the rules to keep all the people all the time. When such rules are changed then there are costs and practical issues that arise from those changes - not easy in days of shrinking budgets and reduced resources.
I am content that those who were blameless at the time in terms of their public behaviour and contribution to the service should have their dignity & medals etc restored, but for a blanket forgiveness for all i am less supportive.
