UK museum accused of ditching war medals for trans tour

The British Imperial War Museum has replaced a decade-old military honors gallery with an LGBTQ exhibit

The British Imperial War Museum has turned “woke,” replacing an exhibition of military medals with an LGBTQ-themed tour, Lord Michael Ashcroft, who owns the historic collection, has said.

Until recently, the London museum had exhibited the ‘Extraordinary Heroes’ gallery, which included a collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross medals, the highest British military and civilian honors.

However, earlier this year, the institution announced it would replace the gallery with a tour titled: ‘Exploring LGBTQ+ Stories in Times of Conflict’. Around a third of the exhibits are related to transgenderism, according to the Daily Mail.

“This was part of the reason the Imperial Woke Museum kicked out over 200 Victoria Crosses telling the incredible stories of the bravest of the brave,” Lord Ashcroft said in an X post on Friday. “It is beyond parody.”

According to some critics, the museum’s decision is an attempt at re-framing history towards a more woke narrative.

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“With this display, they trivialize true stories of bravery and courage,” Buckingham University Professor Anthony Glees told the Daily Mail earlier this week. What is worse, they “appear to be doing so in order to re-frame the lessons of history to make a woke appeal to young Brits on behalf of a highly controversial special interest group,” he said.

The Imperial War Museum has defended its decision, arguing that Lord Ashcroft’s 15-year loan of his medal collection expired in September, and maintained there was no connection between the lapse and the new LGBTQ tour.

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Another British museum faced accusations of “woke” activism last week, after news outlets drew attention to a blog post from a leading figure in the Brighton and Hove Museums group, which called for “decolonizing Father Christmas.” The post argued that a white Santa reinforced colonial assumptions of cultural superiority.

Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, director of UK-based advocacy group Don’t Divide Us, told The Telegraph on Sunday that the people behind such proposals are attempting to rupture Britons’ “sense of belonging to a common past and culture.”