Thought For The Day – Thursday 6th November 2025
Inclusive Remembrance
As we remember, it is important that we are inclusive.
Tomorrow, for example, is the deadline for the “Black History Month” project.
We remember all the diverse and wonderful communities who sacrifice(d), serve(d) and suffer(ed).
At the beginning of our half-term, King Charles III became the first British monarch to acknowledge the existence of LGBT+ people publicly and formally, and the first to attend an event for the LGBT+ community.
King Charles laid flowers at a new memorial to honour LGBT+ people who served in the military at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The National Arboretum is a 150-acre garden dedicated to remembrance, with memorials, which offers space for quiet refection.
The new bronze memorial unveiled there over our half-term to the LGBT+ community was designed by the Norfolk-based artist collective “Abraxas Academy”. 
The statue takes the form of a crumpled bronze letter made up of words taken from LGBT+ people.
Until the ban on their service was lifted on the 11th of January 2000, LGBT+ people, and people who were perceived to be LGBT+, faced: abuse, emotional, physical, sexual, and verbal; bulling; dismissal; financial ruin; forced psychological treatment; intrusive investigations; imprisonment; negative prejudice and negative discrimination; and violence.
Following the publication of a report at the time, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdon, Rishi Sunak M.P., issued a formal apology to LGBT+ veterans and service members on the 19th of July 2023 in the House of Commons, for the historical ban on their service in the military and for all the LGBT+ community had suffered. This was an emotional moment for the LGBT+ community.
The new memorial below is also such a very moving symbol for: all those affected; all who served; all who were treated badly.
The memorial serves to tell their story.
For generations to come.
An important purpose of history, both of the past, of the present and of the future, is to learn lessons, to make the invisible visible, to sing about, and for, those heroes previously unsung.
And when we talk of one group of unsung heroes, other groups of unsung heroes know they are equally valued.
We greatly and respectfully salute all from the LGBT+ community who serve and have served.
