Queen Elizabeth Cared About Gay Rights, Says Former Mayor
September 15, 2022Carl Austin-Behan, Manchester's first openly gay Lord Mayor, has praised the late Queen for “genuinely caring” about the LGBTQ+ community.
Carl Austin-Behan, who was forced out of the Royal Air Force in 1997 for being gay. Homosexuality was illegal in the British armed forces until 2000.
He met the monarch in Manchester in 2021. The Queen had requested an LGBTQ+ choir to perform at an event to mark 600 years of Manchester Cathedral. According to the BBC, Mr. Austin-Behan said it sent a “powerful message” about the importance of diversity and inclusion.
He said he spoke with the Queen about “how far we have moved on” as a society. “We talked about the fact that I had been kicked out of the armed forces in 97 and that we'd moved on with the ban. […] The fact that we've now got equal marriage and the fact that same sex parents can have children, and she accepted that, and we talked about the importance of diversity and inclusion.”
On the Queen's choir request, he said: “To bring communities together sends a really powerful message that she engaged and understood the communities that are part of Greater Manchester and a part of the whole community. […] I feel she genuinely cared about our community.”
Mr. Austin-Behan was elected as Manchester's Lord Mayor in 2016 and appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2019. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for his services to charity, LGBTQ+ equality, and the community in Greater Manchester.
He cherishes the memory of meeting the Queen and has the photographs of the meeting displayed on the wall of his home.
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