I'd imagine Baldric that the army would take quite a dim view if a serving soldier went to the press with a story like this wouldn't you?
I presume he's out of the Army now and feels free to talk about it - of course he could have just sold his story to the tabloids for a cheap story but seeing as he's got a book deal he'd be a fool not to use it for the publicity.
As for the original question I imagine the armed forces are too busy tackling racism in their ranks to be very geared up yet to fight homophobia
We shouldn't be surprised that racism exists within our armed forces, as their personal are drawn from the same pool as any other employer. Racism is on the up in Britain. But the Army has rather an unique method available to it, in order to combat this rising tide. Soldiers must obey orders, in rather a different way than bus conductors, plumber, bricklayers, etc. Why can't the officers deal with this in the same way as any other break with the rules of behaviour ?