Craig Jones on service, silence and the fight for justice
Former Royal Navy officer Craig Jones reflects on the Armed Forces Gay Ban, coming out in uniform, and why the struggle for equality inside Britain’s institutions is far from over.
For much of his naval career, Craig Jones lived with the knowledge that a knock on the door could end everything. Not because he had failed in his duties as a Royal Navy officer, but because he was gay.
When Jones joined the Navy in 1989, homosexuality in the armed forces was not merely discouraged. It was criminalised. LGBTQ+ personnel could be investigated, dismissed in disgrace, stripped of medals and, in some cases, imprisoned.
More than three decades on, Jones has become one of the most influential figures in securing recognition and reparative justice for those harmed by that policy. As founder of Fighting With Pride, he has helped force a reckoning with a chapter of British history that many institutions would rather forget.
In conversation with Scene, Jones speaks candidly about fear, integrity, institutional change and the danger of assuming progress is permanent.
