What's the policy with gays in the military outside the US?

Factual Questions
1

Specifically in Canada, UK, Israel, and Japan?

2

Can’t help you with those countries. This is how it is in Oz:

3

The ban on gay recruits in the UK armed forces was lifted in, IIRC, 2000.

4

Gay men and women may serve in the UK.

I believe this came about after the government was found to be in breach of an EU anti-discrimination convention. After a 1999 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, the government lifted its ban on gay military personnel.

5

So that would suggest that there is not currently any restrictions on gays in other EU countries’ militaries?

Oh, and an aside, is that the correct plural possesive?

6

There is no restriction in the Canadian Forces. It was lifted, IIRC, in the mid-90s.

7

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the court’s decision is binding only on the British government, but it would appear to set a precedent for other EU nations. Two points, however: (i) the European Union Human Rights Act is incorporated into British law, which may or may not be the case in other nations; and (ii) to challenge the ban on gays in the UK military under EU jurisdiction, British plaintiffs had to first exhaust all British legal channels before proceeding to the European Court of Human Rights. This would be an expensive and time consuming process, so it’s perhaps possible that anti-gay laws in other EU nations have not been successfully challenged at this time.

According to this, two EU members, Greece and Italy, still ban gays from serving in the military.

There is some suggestion that Turkey will have to repeal its laws which discriminate againsts homosexuals in the military before it is allowed to enter the EU (among other laws abhorrent to the EU, such as the death penalty).

8

In 1992, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the ban on gays and lesbians in the Canadian Armed Forces was discriminatory, contrary to the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Federal Court apparently reached a similar conclusion in another case about the same time.

The federal government did not appeal those decisions. On Octobre 28, 1992 the Chief of Defence Staff, General John de Chastelain issued a statement confirming that “Canadians, regardless of their sexual orientation, will now be able to serve their country in the Canadian Forces without restriction.”

For a detailed review of gays and lesbians in the CAF, see this web-page.

More recently, as part of the same-sex marriage issue, the Canadian Armed Forces announced that gays and lesbians in the CAF can get married in military chapels by CAF chaplains.

9

In Spain, depending on where you live, you can get the government to pay for sex-reassignment operations.

A soldier recently got reassigned female, while on active duty. The Army has been co-ed for about 15 years.

Any further questions?
(no link because the places I know where I could find a reference are all in Spanish and charge for “old news”)

10

Israel has allowed gays to serve since the early '90’s. Japan simply ignores the issue altogether, far as I can tell.

  • Tamerlane