The Imperial War Museum has come under fire after removing a long-running gallery showcasing Britain’s highest military and civilian honours and replacing it with an LGBTQ-themed exhibition.
The museum recently closed its “Extraordinary Heroes” gallery, which for more than a decade displayed Victoria Cross and George Cross medals awarded for acts of exceptional bravery. In its place, the institution has introduced a new experience titled “Exploring LGBTQ+ Stories in Times of Conflict,” which focuses on the role and experiences of sexual minorities during wartime. British media reports say roughly a third of the material relates to transgender history.
Lord Michael Ashcroft, whose private collection of more than 200 medals formed the core of the former display, criticised the move, accusing the museum of sidelining stories of heroism. Writing on X, he said the decision to remove the medals was “beyond parody” and described the institution as having abandoned its original purpose.
Critics argue the change reflects a broader effort to reinterpret history through a modern ideological lens. Professor Anthony Glees of Buckingham University told the Daily Mail that the new display risked trivialising genuine acts of courage, claiming the museum appeared to be reshaping historical lessons to appeal to younger audiences through what he described as a “woke” narrative.
The Imperial War Museum has rejected those claims, saying the removal of the medals was unrelated to the new exhibition. It said Lord Ashcroft’s 15-year loan of the collection expired in September and that the decision not to renew it was made independently of the LGBTQ tour.
The controversy follows similar debates at other UK cultural institutions. Last week, a senior figure linked to the Brighton and Hove Museums group drew criticism after calling for the “decolonisation” of Father Christmas, arguing that traditional depictions reinforced colonial ideas.
Commenting on the wider trend, Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, director of advocacy group ‘Don’t Divide Us’, told The Telegraph (UK) that such initiatives risk undermining a shared sense of national history and cultural identity.
Auckland museum is just as bad and have been for a long time.
They say the victor re-writes history and here it is. History re-written (or over-written) by transhumanists imposing the ‘woke mind virus’ on humanity – a great cognitive distraction while the dna is rewired to suit the strange and wonderful. Cue the awards ceremonies.
The Imperial War Museum could easily come up with a display featuring prominent, high-ranking British military leaders (plus the politicians who governed during war time) who were paedophiles and homosexuals… but I suspect that wouldn’t be something that would suit their narrative.