https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/...ahartleybrewer
Gays plan 'queer' Cenotaph tribute
Julia Hartley-Brewer
Sat 13 Nov 1999 02.17 GMT
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Gay campaigners protesting on behalf of the "forgotten" homosexual war dead will join former servicemen and women at the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day service tomorrow.
Homosexual veterans and activists for gay and lesbian rights yesterday condemned the Royal British Legion as "homophobic", claiming the veterans' organisation has refused to acknowledge the sacrifices made by gay people during the second world war.
They plan to follow the main ceremony and two minutes' silence with a special "queer remembrance day" service, with gay campaigners marching directly behind war veterans laying wreaths of poppies at the Cenotaph, but instead holding pink flags and laying pink triangle wreaths before observing another minute's silence.
Peter Tatchell, the Outrage campaigner, who will join the ceremony, accused the British Legion of excluding the partners of gay war veterans from the official Remembrance Sunday parade, while welcoming the widows and widowers of heterosexuals in military service.
He said: "The Royal British Legion refuses to acknowledge that an estimated 500,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual people served in the armed forces during the second world war. Accounting for about 10% of enlisted strength, queer military personnel made a significant but still unrecognised contribution to the defeat of Hitlerism."
During the gay service, a short oration will be delivered by Ray Harvey-Amer, 64, a homosexual veteran who served as a nurse in the Royal Navy from 1957. He said: "There were a lot of gay men and lesbians who did a very good job of fighting the Nazis but were terrified to be out and proud about their sexuality."
The service was arranged after an approach to Outrage by the partner of a gay serviceman who had recently died, who claimed the British Legion told him he could not join the widows and widowers on the parade past the Cenotaph because same-sex partners were not recognised.
The legion denied homophobia. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bobby Hanscomb, assistant secretary, said: "There isn't a policy. We have never excluded anybody from the service as it is a national event representing everybody."
He added: "I don't think it is right to make a political point at a ceremony to mark the deaths of 1.7m people. We are just anxious the dignity and solemnity of the occasion will be given proper regard."
https://uk.lush.com/article/qa-peter-tatchell
During the 1980s you battled to allow pink triangle wreaths to be placed outside The Cenotaph War Memorial at Whitehall, can you tell us a little bit about the history of the pink triangle and what it represents?
Until the mid-1980s there was an unofficial ban on the laying of pink triangle wreaths at Britain’s main war memorial The Cenotaph. For many years, we had laid wreaths but they had always been removed within a few hours. The Royal British Legion denounced pink triangle wreaths as an insult to the war dead. It refused to allow a gay veterans contingent to march in Remembrance Day parades. It was only in 1985, on the 40th anniversary of VE day, that the government finally relented and allowed us to lay pink triangle wreaths