I was delighted that Lord Etherton joined us as the guest speaker for a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Women in Defence. During the meeting, he spoke about the much-awaited LGBT Veterans Independent Review – ‘Etherton Report’.
Whilst it was particularly sobering to hear some of the findings, it is important that we acknowledge and learn from the experiences of LGBT veterans whose lives were seriously impacted by the homosexuality ban. Now we await the full publication of the Etherton Report - we heard murmurings that it was set to be released before Summer Recess.
As the Chair of the APPG, I am pleased that every month we continually see high levels of interest in the APPG meetings, allowing us to highlight the enormous contribution of women in all areas of defence, including serving Armed Forces women and veterans.