Members and supporters may remember the case of FSU member Kelvin Wright, which I highlighted in June’s newsletter.
There was an interesting addendum to that story during the first week of July, when Defence Secretary Ben Wallace dismissed as “rubbish and untrue” reports that Colonel Kelvin Wright was investigated by the Army over a post stating “men cannot be women”.
But he was. Dr Wright has now responded in full to Mr Wallace’s claim that the investigation had “nothing to do with his views” (Telegraph).
Dr Wright, who served two tours in Afghanistan during his 14 years in the Army Reserve, felt he had no option but to resign after being hit with a transphobia complaint by the Army’s “LGBT champions” and then dragged through a Kafkaesque investigation that he describes as “hellish”. All he’d done wrong was to quote the gender critical feminist Helen Joyce on his private Facebook account.
Mr Wallace tweeted: “His views are NOT contrary to Army policy. Col Wright’s administrative investigation stemmed from Army social media policy and had nothing to do with his views.”
Yet emails to Dr Wright, seen by the Telegraph (and our case team) show that the investigating officer in his case referred specifically to the Army’s transgender policy.
“I’m tasked simply to investigate and report on the Facebook post as a single matter, looking at the facts as found, considering potentially applicable regulations such as AGAI67 and JSP 889 (the latter cited by the complainant), and any relevant service principles, such as the Army’s values and standards and the service test,” said one message from the investigating officer.
JSP 889 is the policy for the recruitment and management of transgender personnel in the Armed Forces, which says “all employees should be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace irrespective of gender identity and/or reassignment”.
“At no point was the Army’s social media policy mentioned to me,” Dr Wright told the Telegraph. “But having reviewed that policy, I cannot see how I could be deemed to have breached it.”
“If the official line is now that I breached the social media policy, I await an explanation as to how I have done so. Every attempt I have made to see the complaint in its entirety and respond to it in full has been rebuffed.”
Dr Wright continued: “Having served my country for 14 years, to then be placed under investigation for a Facebook post defending women’s rights was in itself utterly intolerable. I therefore felt no choice but to resign. Now to have it claimed that reports of my account are ‘rubbish and untrue’ by the Defence Secretary sadly only confirms my decision.”
The Defence Secretary should tell the Army to drop the ongoing investigation into Dr Wright, to apologise for his shoddy treatment after 14 years of service and to thank him for risking his life for our country.
Our case team has been supporting Dr Wright since May. In addition to arranging for him to receive legal advice, we will be paying any legal bill.
We stand fully behind Dr Wright, and are ready, willing, and able to explore all available legal remedies as we support our member through this ordeal.
