For two years, David Bonney’s sexuality was investigated by his employer, the RAF. When he confessed, he was sent to solitary
, was investigating his sexuality within minutes of entering the guard room at RAF Mount Batten, a military base near Plymouth. It was 1991 and Bonney, then a 21-year-old medical assistant, had just been escorted from his post at the medical centre by military police. He sat down in the guard room, opposite the duty staff, and the interrogation began.
Bonney served four months in prison, before being let out early for good behaviour. He is believed to be the last person in the UK to be imprisoned for being gay. Three decades later, he is still dealing with the fallout.I meet Bonney at his home near Euston station in central London, where he lives with his cockapoo, Scuba. He talks proudly of his career and stoically about what happened to him, but he is hard to pin down.
Bonney received three medals for his time in the Gulf. Afterwards, he chose to be stationed at RAF Mount Batten in Plymouth. As it was his home town, he was able to live in his own flat, rather than the barracks, so could start exploring his sexuality. “I was a late bloomer,” he says. “I wasn’t ugly, so I went for it!” He would often head to a gay pub called the Swallow. “I was in my 20s, enjoying a gay life, and it was good fun.” He had no idea an investigation into his sexuality was under way.
Inevitably, “a year of being shunned” lowered his self-esteem. “It made me not like myself,“ he says. “All that negativity around, not fitting in. And you want to fit in when you’re young; you want to be part of the group. It does affect you to deny a really important part of yourself.”Bonney’s attitude was to get on with his job. One day, a colleague dislocated their kneecap while playing squash. “I was the only medic left,” he says.
, after the publication of a government-commissioned review, which looked into the experiences of LGBTQ+ people who served in the military between 1967 and 2000, when the ban was in place. “In that period, many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment, all while bravely serving this country,” Sunak said. As well as an apology, the review recommended compensation of up to £50m.
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