From pmdatropos@aol.com  Tue Aug 23 15:27:26 1994
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Date: Tue, 09 Aug 94 13:10:00 PDT

British Defense Ministry Fires 260 Gays
Friday, August 5, 1994

         LONDON (Reuter) - Britain's Defense Ministry has fired 260
service personnel since 1990 for being homosexual or lesbian, according to
figures published Friday.

         They include army majors, a Royal Air Force squadron leader and
two chaplains who may take the government to the European Court of Human
Rights and sue for millions of dollars.

         After disclosure of the figures given to her by the ministry,
opposition Labor lawmaker Barbara Roche said: ``They are treated
appallingly, with investigators asking intimate questions and searching
their personal belongings.''

         She told the Guardian newspaper: ``They also face the loss of
their careers simply because the government does not believe in equality.
These dismissals must be costing the taxpayer millions of pounds (dollars)
in lost training.''

         Civil rights lawyers said the dismissed personnel had a clear
case under the European Convention of Human Rights.

         Ministers say homosexuality is not conducive to good military
discipline.

         Naval officer Edmund Hall, dismissed after admitting he was gay,
told The Guardian: ``I had to be dishonest again and again. It just got
too much for me.''

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