As a newly minted 17-year-old Canadian Armed Forces Safety Systems Specialist, Kareth Huber says she felt she was exactly where she was supposed to be in her life.

Growing up, she heard stories of her uncles’ and grandfather’s service as her family moved from base-to-base with her military aircraft mechanic father.

“I was proud of being a soldier. I was always destined to be that,” she said.

But the pride she felt turned to shame in 1976, after she endured room searches, interrogations, and sexual assaults by her fellow soldiers. Huber was told by her Base Commander that she “wasn’t good enough to die for her country.”

She was dropped off with her bags at the gates of the CFB Borden military base.

Huber became another victim of Canada’s LGBT purge.

“I felt completely and utterly alone.”

During the hours and hours of interrogations by the Special Investigations Unit, she was asked to write down names of her gay and lesbian friends. But she didn’t betray anyone.

“They wanted me to admit that I was a lesbian. And I refused,” she said.

“ I knew well enough not to say a word and just deny it. I was threatened. They threatened to tell my family, to call my parents.”

She says the abuse she endured in the military had an immediate and lasting impact on her mental health.

“I was told to never, ever try and get back on a military base. They stripped me of my identity completely.”

One of the worst parts of this very public singling-out, she said, was the awkwardness it caused between her and her fellow soldiers.

After the lengthy interrogations, she was paraded back to her barracks in front of everyone. Investigators tore her room apart and read her personal letters in front of her three roommates.

They made it be known that I was not someone to be spoken to. I was not someone to be seen around. I was not someone to call a friend,” she said.

“Everybody was afraid. Nobody would talk to me.

“I wasn't accepted anywhere.”

She said the years that followed were very difficult. She says she avoided questions about why she had left a career she loved so much, and was too ashamed to tell the truth.

Her self-confidence was shaken and she bounced from job to job, dealing with addictions. She even attempted to take her own life.

She was admitted to hospital where she was scheduled to begin conversion therapy. To avoid this, she said she signed herself out and spent many years feeling angry and acting rebellious.

It wasn’t until 2017, when the federal government issued an apology in the House of Commons for the historical unjust treatment of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadian Armed Forces members, RCMP, and federal public servants, that Huber opened up to her therapist for the first time in her life, sharing what had happened to her.

“That same week of the apology, I broke down. I just melted down,” she said.

“I went to my therapist and told her. She just sat there with her mouth open and she's like, ‘you have never ever spoken of this.’ She had no idea.”

Although she still struggles with PTSD almost five decades later, happiness and light have re-entered Huber’s life.

She has successfully overcome her addictions, and the social isolation she felt has been transformed into a strong and lasting network of friendships with fellow purge survivors, many of whom had never spoken of their experiences prior to meeting her.

“I've become the person I was supposed to be. I've found new purpose in my life,” she said.

As head of the Rainbow Veterans of Canada Speakers Bureau and Education group, Huber has brought survivors together from across the country.

“They've never met another first survivor before, and they've just been all blown away by all of this. They found a camaraderie. They found their family. They found their people,” she said.

“We’ve had to be silent for so long. Many of us suffered in silence for many, many, many years.”

Last year, Huber was “honoured and nervous” to be chosen to lay the wreath at the National War Memorial on behalf of Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ Veterans.

“I'm honouring all Veterans, but I'm especially honouring the 2SLGBTQI+ Veterans who could never speak their truth in the military.

“We were people who were there fighting for our people as well as everybody else.”

The new Rainbow Veterans of Canada Heraldic Badge, for which Huber’s Rainbow Veterans colleagues advocated and King Charles III recently granted the use of the Crown, signifies the inclusion of Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ Veterans in their rightful, official place in military history.

“It signifies that we are actually Veterans,” she said.

“We've been legitimized. Finally, and it's a wonderful feeling.”

With courage, integrity and loyalty, Kareth Huber is leaving her mark. She is one of our Canadian Armed Forces members. Discover more stories.

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