Coming Home #2: British LGBTQ+ Military Veterans Share Their Stories
The second issue of the "Coming Home" comic, which focuses on the lasting impact of the UK military's 'Gay Ban' on the mental health of veterans, has been co-created by the Arts in Health charity Re-Live in partnership with Fighting With Pride, the LGBTQ+ military veterans charity. "Coming Home" will be released on January 8th, 2025, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the lifting of the ban on gay individuals serving in the UK Armed Forces.
Under this ban, thousands of LGBTQ+ service personnel faced surveillance and interrogation. They suffered court-martials, dismissals for conduct unbecoming, and even imprisonment. Many were left with long-term mental health issues as a result of the shame and punishment they experienced. The 'Gay Ban' was lifted for LGBTQ+ members of the Armed Forces on January 12th, 2000.
The stories in "Coming Home" highlight the complex and diverse experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who have served in the military over the past few decades.
Flight Lieutenant Caroline Paige MBE became the first openly serving transgender officer in the British Armed Forces in 1999. Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones MBE came out on the day the Gay Ban was lifted in January 2000. Flight Lieutenant Steve Purves joined the Royal Air Force in 1972 as an electrical engineer and was sentenced to six months in prison in 1985 for engaging in a consensual relationship with another man.
Corporal Ruth Birch and Private Julia Currey, who met while serving in the British Army in the 1980s, began a secret relationship that relied on coded messages. They were eventually discovered by the Army, which forced them to separate after an interrogation by the Special Investigation Branch. Remarkably, Ruth and Julia were reunited 22 years later in Porthcawl, South Wales, and they finally got married in 2017.
Re-Live's Karin Diamond and Steve Sullivan worked alongside each veteran over eight months to hear their mental health stories and explore how they could best become scripts for comic stories.
The scripted stories were then sent to leading British LGBTQ+ and allied comic artists, chosen for their work's compatibility with each story. These include leading LGBTQ+ artist Ed Firth, the creator behind the ongoing Horny & High anthology comic who is currently Artist in Residence at The Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles; cartoonist and illustrator Anna Readman who won the Observer/Faber Graphic Short Story Prize for dancing Queen; Ria Grix whose work has appeared in The New Scientist and Star Trek Magazine and AJ O'Neill, an Irish LGBTQ+ freelance illustrator, graphic artist and choreographer.
The artists shared their work at each stage of its creation, from the first rough sketches through to the finished inked and coloured pages, and allowed the veterans and Re-Live to have input at every stage, ensuring that the finished work is an honest and accurate reflection of the veterans' real-life experiences.
Coming Home issue 2 will be on sale through comic shops in UK, USA, Ireland and Australia from Wednesday January 8th, 2025.
Customers wishing to buy Coming Home issue 2 can pre-order it from their local comic shop during December 2024 to ensure it will be stocked. Please ask your comic shop to pre-order Coming Home issue 2 quoting Diamond Distribution order code: DEC241815
The comic will also be available to order online directly from Re-Live's shop at www.re-live.org.uk from January 8th 2025.
