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Britain’s First Openly Gay Defence Secretary Says the Abuse Is Relentless: But There Is Another Story Here Too

Aug 30
3 min read

Updated: Sep 5

Truth Vs Hate social image about Britain’s first openly gay Defence Secretary and homophobic abuse

Britain can move forward and backwards at the same time. Wes Streeting becoming the country’s first openly gay Defence Secretary is a striking example. In one sense, his appointment passed with remarkably little ceremony. A gay man taking charge of the Ministry of Defence was treated by much of the mainstream media as a cabinet appointment rather than a constitutional drama. That is progress.


But Streeting says another Britain appeared online. Speaking after his appointment, he described an “unbelievable volume” of homophobic abuse and said he had experienced more homophobia in a matter of weeks than across much of his political career. The contrast is worth examining because it tells us more than either a triumphalist story of complete equality or a despairing story of a country unchanged.


A milestone that barely looked like one


For decades, gay and lesbian people were formally excluded from serving openly in Britain’s armed forces. The ban was only lifted in 2000. Against that history, an openly gay politician now leading the department responsible for the armed forces is undeniably significant. Yet the lack of widespread shock around Streeting’s appointment may be just as important as the appointment itself.


Social change often becomes visible not when a milestone is celebrated, but when it stops feeling extraordinary. A generation ago, the sexuality of a Defence Secretary would have dominated coverage. In 2026, much of the discussion focused instead on budgets, military readiness and policy. That is what normalisation looks like.


The abuse has not disappeared


Normalisation does not mean prejudice has vanished. Streeting told ITV that people online appeared unable to cope with the idea of a gay Defence Secretary. The Guardian later reported the same pattern of sustained homophobic abuse. The internet gives prejudice a distribution system that can make a relatively small number of people look omnipresent.


That distinction matters. Social media can reveal genuine hostility, but it can also distort our sense of its scale. Thousands of abusive replies do not necessarily mean millions of people share the sentiment. Equally, dismissing online abuse as unreal ignores the effect repeated dehumanisation can have on the people targeted and on others who see it.


Progress and backlash are not opposites


Culture-war politics encourages us to choose one story. Either Britain is a tolerant success where discrimination is over, or it is irredeemably hostile. The evidence points somewhere more complicated. Legal and social acceptance of gay people has advanced dramatically, representation has widened, and openly gay people occupy roles once unimaginable. At the same time, homophobic abuse remains real and can become particularly intense when a gay person enters a role associated with traditional ideas of masculinity and power.


Streeting’s response was not to suggest that his sexuality makes him stronger or weaker at defence policy. It was to argue that visibility can challenge the stereotype itself. A gay Defence Secretary does not need to prove that gay people belong in public life; the fact that the job can increasingly be judged on performance rather than sexuality is part of the point.


The wider story


The most revealing fact may be that both things are true at once. Britain has changed enough for its first openly gay Defence Secretary to be treated as relatively ordinary. It has not changed enough to stop a wave of people reaching for homophobic abuse when they dislike him.


TruthVsHate.com view on this story


That is why measuring progress honestly matters. If we pretend prejudice has disappeared, we fail the people still experiencing it. If we pretend nothing has improved, we erase decades of social change and the people who fought for it. Evidence over outrage means being able to hold both truths at the same time.


Sources


Truth Vs Hate publishes the sources behind our reporting so readers can check the evidence, context and claims for themselves. Transparency matters because readers should be able to verify what we say rather than simply take our word for it.





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