Queen Elizabeth II: Monarch cared about gay rights, says former mayor

Manchester's first openly gay Lord Mayor has heaped praise on the late Queen for "genuinely caring" about the LGBTQ+ community.

Carl Austin-Behan, who was forced out of the RAF for being gay in the 1990s, 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.

Mr Austin-Behan said it sent a "powerful message" about the importance of diversity and inclusion.

The ex-serviceman was discharged from the the Royal Air Force due to his sexuality in 1997. Homosexuality was illegal in the British armed forces until 2000.

He told how 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," he said.

"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 said 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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