An experienced British Army doctor with two Afghanistan tours under his belt has been forced out, it is claimed, after he made a social media post saying “men cannot be women”.
Dr Kelvin Wright, formerly an Army Reserve officer who had commanded the 306 Hospital Support Regiment and flew in combat evacuation helicopters in Afghanistan in addition to his civilian role as a NHS trauma consultant is being supported by the Free Speech Union after he was allegedly pushed out of the army by an investigation into his social media usage.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Wright had posted a meme citing the words of feminist Helen Joyce that “If women cannot stand in a public place and say ‘men cannot be women’, when we do not have women’s rights at all”. This is said to have triggered an internal Army investigation into his “substandard behaviour”, leaving the experienced doctor to resign his commission, which will severely impact his army pension.
The paper cites Dr Wright as saying of the events: “This attack on my honour made my position completely untenable. I could no longer remain in an Army which treated its officers with such disrespect.
“What message does it send to women in the Army, that merely for noting the existence of women and women’s rights even a colonel can be placed under investigation? I, therefore, feel there is no other choice but to make this matter public. It makes you wonder who is running the Army: the Chief of the Defence Staff, or Stonewall?”.
Royal Air Force Recruiters Told To Stop Selecting ‘Useless White Male’ Pilots https://t.co/AQJ64Scp75
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 2, 2023
The claims of junior officers crying transgender discrimination in the army forcing out the colonel comes as another military woke scandal develops, with the new head of the Royal Air Force being moved to apologise for recent revelations that it had discriminated against white male pilots.
Forces.net reports Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton admitted some men missed out because 161 candidates were accelerated to training places ahead of others because they were women or from ethnic minority backgrounds. He said:
…the RAF had made mistakes in the way we had offered places on training courses to people selected to join the RAF. The NSI confirmed that, in 2020 and 2021, a total of 161 enlisted aviators, who were either women or from ethnic minority backgrounds, were accelerated onto initial training ahead of other candidates.
The belief at that time, based on the understanding of the recruiting process and interpretation of the legal advice, was that this practice demonstrated acceptable, positive action. We now know that it did not, and I apologise unreservedly to all those affected.
We accept that some men were discriminated against. This included a group of 31 individuals, who likely missed the opportunity to qualify for a £5,000 joining bonus. We have identified those people and are retrospectively offering to award them any financial payment they missed out on.
Those involved in recruiting and selection throughout this period acted with the best of intentions, but it is clear that people responsible for implementing these policies did raise concerns at the time, and the way in which long-term aspirational goals set by senior leadership to improve diversity in the RAF were translated into personal performance targets was wrong.