Royal Air Force - News & Updates

When So So Gay’s editorial team decided to run a month of articles about our writers’ LGBT heroes to mark LGBT History Month, I had no trouble at all in identifying my own hero. Wing Commander Mark Abrahams is a man I’ve known as a friend, leader and colleague for several years, and I can’t think of a better name to put forward.

Since the ban on gay people in the military was lifted back in 2000, Mark has led the Royal Air Force’s LGBT Forum, which has played a major role in ‘normalising’ the LGBT community and in championing its needs. By 2006, Mark had persuaded the Service to allow gay personnel to march through London at Pride, albeit in non-RAF attire.  Two years on, RAF personnel marched in Pride in full uniform.  The Forces’ presence in Pride is now seen as normal – a genuine source of pride for gay military personnel, their friends and families, and the LGBT community at large, and a testament to Mark’s hard work and commitment to his colleagues. In recognition of his leadership, Mark has featured in the Independent on Sunday’s ‘Pink List’ every year since 2008, most recently ranking 78.  His efforts were also recognised earlier this year by Stonewall, as the RAF entered the campaign group’s list of the UK’s Top 100 LGBT-friendly employers.

For Mark, though, the LGBT Forum is only a small part of his Service experience.  He joined the RAF in 1990 as a loadmaster on Chinook helicopters, often known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Armed Forces, and has seen operational service all over the world – from the Falkland Islands to Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and many places in between.  In 2008, as the then second-in-command of 27 Squadron, he received an MBE for his exemplary leadership during earthquake disaster relief operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2006.

Perhaps his most courageous moment came in 1998, when Chinook crews took part in a daring SAS-led operation to rescue British hostages from rebel forces in Sierra Leone.  Mark and his colleagues quite literally put their lives on the line in one of the most audacious rescue attempts ever made.  Ultimately, that’s why he counts as my LGBT hero: genuinely courageous and inspiring, he is proof positive that sexuality has nothing whatever to do with our Armed Forces personnel’s ability to do their jobs. As a young RAF officer, I looked up to him – and I look up to him still.

This article appeared on SoSo Gay written by Andy Wasley in Feb 2011