RAF broadens appeal with diversity drive

The Gay Pride festival over the August Bank Holiday heralded a new era for the RAF, as it specifically targeted homosexual recruits for the first time in its history.

Eight officers staffed a float at the event in Manchester as part of a recruitment drive to show that the Armed Forces welcome people from different backgrounds.

Until January 2003, it was legal for the Armed Forces to reject gay and lesbian officers. But the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the ban breached gay peoples' right to respect for private life.

A spokeswoman for the RAF said: "We have recruitment policies that recognise that people from different backgrounds can make positive contributions. An individual's sexual orientation is none of the RAF's business."