BISA War Studies keynote 2024

This year’s War Studies keynote speaker at the BISA annual conference in Birmingham was Ed Hall. The title of Ed’s keynote was ‘The UK’s Armed Forces: A remarkable journey in diversity and inclusion from the 1950s to today’. 

In 1988, Ed Hall was arrested, interrogated and then sacked from the Royal Navy for being gay. 

He went on to found the Armed Forces Legal Challenge Group in 1994, and wrote We Can’t Even March Straight (Vintage, 1995) which became the catalyst for six years of campaigning to see the ban on lesbian and gay servicepeople lifted. In 1999, the cases Ed brought together succeeded in winning against the UK government in the European Court of Human Rights, and in January 2000, lesbian and gay servicepeople were able to serve openly for the first time.  

Since the ban was lifted, the UK’s armed forces have supported gay pride marches, created staff networks for LGBT+ staff, and senior leadership across the armed forces has embraced and celebrated the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace. Ed talked us through the world that he remembers and researched from the time before the ban, and gave us some unique insights into a period of remarkable social change.

Ed Hall is a television and technology entrepreneur, author and political activist who has campaigned for lesbian and gay rights since he was dismissed from the Royal Navy in 1988 for being gay. He has lived and worked around the world, and has contributed to a range of research and publications on the subject of LGBT rights. Most recently he appears in the 2023 Sky documentary Forced Out (Dragonfly Films), is credited in Lord Etherton’s Review of the LGBT ban, and wrote the opening chapter in Fighting With Pride (Pen and Sword Military 2020) about the campaign to lift the ban.

You can find out more about Ed on his website and in his podcast.

The keynote was sponsored by Polity.