Manchester's first openly gay mayor receives huge veteran honour - but is refusing to wear it for special reason

The former LGBT+ advisor for Andy Burnham has said he will refuse to wear a ‘very meaningful’ recognition he has been given by the Government.

Carl Austin-Behan OBE, who served as the Manchester Mayor’s advisor from 2018 until 2022, was one of the first three LGBTQ+ veterans to be awarded with a special Etherton Ribbon by the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday (September 10).

The honour has been created by the Government to acknowledge the mistreatment of those affected by a ban on LGBTQ+ personnel serving in the UK Armed Forces between 1967 and 2000.

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Carl, a former Burnage councillor and also became the first openly gay Lord Mayor of Manchester in 2016, served as a firefighter in the RAF from 1991 until 1997. During that time, he had been mentioned in the Queen's Birthday Honours and received a medal from the Royal Humane Society.

But he was kicked out of service after six years for having ‘homosexual tendencies’. He was stripped of his medals and given just an hour to pack up his belongings before he was escorted off the premises.

Carl, who is now a LGBTQ+ Community Ambassador for Manchester-based charity LGBT Foundation, was one of the first recipients of the Etherton Ribbon this week, alongside Emma Riley, who served as a Royal Naval radio operator, and Stephen Close, who served in the Army.

The Secretary of State for Defence John Healey MP, who presented the honours to the three recipients, said he hoped the move would ‘symbolise the unique contribution that our LGBT veterans have made to national security, and acknowledges the treatment they suffered’.

He added: “The historic treatment of LGBT veterans was utterly unacceptable and