As seen on ARRSE:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../31/ngay31.xml
Air Force enlists Stonewall for gay recruits
Sunday Telegraph
The Royal Air Force has called in a gay pressure group to help solve its recruitment crisis. The Service will take advice from Stonewall on how to make itself more attractive to homosexual and bisexual men and women,and is aiming to spend tens of thousands of pounds on advertising in the "pink" media.
As part of the initiative, the RAF will pay Stonewall an undisclosed sum to join its "Diversity Champions" programme, under which commanders have to demonstrate the Service's commitment to implementing a range of policies to promote "lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) equality in the workplace". The measures will include offering equal survivor pensions to same-sex couples, creating an LGB staff group and sponsoring events such as the annual Gay Pride festival.
The "contract" between the RAF and Stonewall follows 18 months of negotiations in which senior military chiefs were told that the Armed Forces were a "turn-off" to gay men and women because of the belief that they were "entrenched with gay prejudice".
Many of the estimated 12,000 homosexual personnel in the Armed Forces have fought – and in some cases been killed – in Iraq and Afghanistan but, according to Stonewall, few if any serving gay troops feel confident enough to declare their sexuality publicly.
As part of the new undertaking, the RAF has agreed to be placed on a Workplace Equality Index, which showcases Britain's top 100 employers for homosexual and bisexual staff. Stonewall will offer RAF personnel the chance to attend its intensive two-day professional development training exercise for "rising- lesbian and gay professionals in the workplace".
Senior RAF officers will also receive a training package "designed to educate employers and their staff about the benefits of building an inclusive workplace environment for lesbian and gay staff".
A commentator wrote:
The changing of the name RAF Brize Norton to RAF Graham Norton will bring with it some changes to the way the Royal Air Force is perceived by the public.
