The Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he faced more online homophobia in the weeks since he was appointed than in his whole life.
Streeting said he had received an “unbelievable volume” of abuse because people “couldn’t cope” with the idea of an openly gay person leading the armed forces.
In an interview with the Iain Dale All Talk podcast at the Edinburgh Fringe, he said his new role was an opportunity for him to demonstrate strength and “to challenge the sort of stereotype that clearly persists in dark corners of the internet”.
Homosexuality started being decriminalised in the UK in 1967, but a ban continued in the armed forces until 2000.
Speaking on the podcast, Streeting said: “I have experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life.
“An unbelievable volume, because people cannot cope with the idea that a gay person might lead the armed forces of the United Kingdom.”
“Being the first openly gay defence secretary has been almost entirely unremarked upon in the media,” he added.
“And I think, ‘great, here we are in the third decade of the 21st century it doesn’t matter, brilliant’. But of course online it matters to a lot of people.
“And I am proud of the fact that in my lifetime we’ve gone from gay people not being able to serve in the military to a gay defence secretary.”
However, Streeting said he had also been congratulated by people in the Ministry of Defence for being a symbol of progress.
He said: “In my first week, someone in the MoD said to me: ‘As a gay man, I’m really proud that we have our first gay defence secretary – It means a lot to many of us who remember the bad old days.’ I was quite touched by that.”
