When the Natnal Gay Pilots Associatn (NGPA), then known as the Gay Pilots Associatn was found 1990 their first few meetgs were very discreet events held Key Wt, Florida and Provcetown, Massachetts. Owg to the timbre of the tim, closeted airle and ary pilots and aviatn enthiasts om around the untry stuck to
Contents:
- THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
- OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
- DO YOU EVER SEE GAY PILOTS?
- ANY GAY PILOTS?
- 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
- GAY PILOTS: FLYG OVER THE RABOW
- A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS
- NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN
- OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
- GAY PILOTS BRG LOVE OF AVIATN TO HELP KICK OFF PRI MONTH CEDAR RAPIDS
- NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN SPREADS ADVOCY BEYOND FLIGHT CK
- NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN
- NATNAL GAY PILOT’S ASSOCIATN HOLDS FIRST FLY- EVENT AT EASTERN IOWA AIRPORT
- JAGUARS NFL ACH OUT AS GAY US SPORTS FIRST
THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
Hi there We're Troy and Damian- Gay Pilots om the USA- and we'll be tourg down unr there about 12 weeks. Can't WAIT! The US has a Gay and Lbian Pilots Associatn and we were wonrg if you Asi have anythg siar. Jt remember: Pk balloons! Look forward to hearg om you ... * gay pilots australia *
The Secret History of Atralia's Gay Diggers.
OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
Hangar Talk - Do you ever see gay pilots? - It seems there's no longer a hanger talk sub-fom, so I'll jt throw this thought here. This is somethg I've been wonrg for a while. We all know about the flight attendant world, but what about the flight ck? Do you ever see openly gay airle/profsnal * gay pilots australia *
On Anzac Day, 1982, five gay men walked up to the Shre of Remembrance Melbourne. They were om the Gay Ex-Servic Associatn, and they rried a wreath dited to ‘all brothers and sisters who died durg the wars’—but they would never get to lay at the shre. “I don’t know where all the gays and poofters have e om, ” he was later famoly quoted as sayg, “I don’t remember a sgle one om World War Two.
“There were thoands of ex-servicemen who were mp, I thk I went through 300 of them myself, ” he told the magaze, a py of which is prerved by the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv. When one man harassed Smh about beg gay, a iend remd him that Pkie was a three-time featherweight boxg champn.
DO YOU EVER SEE GAY PILOTS?
Qutns - Any Gay pilots? - We have gay pilots our pany. As ever when flyg wh someone new, the topic of nversatn cise/dner tend to be very general and safe until you know the other person. Then 's game on. I'm a female pilot and the guys don't talk about women ( that way) to me, so I thk * gay pilots australia *
"We had s of homosexuals really fallg love.
ANY GAY PILOTS?
One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. * gay pilots australia *
In the terts of general happs we re-arranged some room occupants and eventually got all the homos one block, " he said. “A quarter of homosexual s Queensland crimal urts across the war volved airmen, seamen, pilots or others the ary, ” he says. While Atralia’s official ban on gay and lbian service was repealed 1992, LGBT+ soldiers served long before then.
'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
* gay pilots australia *
“There n be ltle doubt there were gay soldiers [...
Before repeal, the Atralian Defence Force policy was to remove gay men “sympathetilly and wh discretn”. But right back to Atralia's early years, Smaal says was easy for gay men to jo the armed forc. “The irony, of urse, was that they end up an all-male environment wh limed opportuny for female pany – the potential for homo-sex had never been greater, ” Smaal says.
GAY PILOTS: FLYG OVER THE RABOW
Sometim was latent homosexualy, sometim otherwise ‘straight’ men found themselv havg sex wh other men. “It was amazg the number of gay people the POW mp, ” the Atralian serviceman told Outrage, “well not so much gay as bisexual – bee they uldn’t get a woman they’d have a man. Ined, the forc of World War One and World War Two may have been a surprisgly liberatg place for gay men and women.
A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS
Gay bars Kgs Cross bulged wh servicemen and sailors as warships me to port.
There are multiple s of veterans beg arrted for homosexualy offenc after the war, tellg thori they were pursug sir disvered the armed forc.
After the war, a gay bar lled ‘Diggers’ even opened Sydney. “I do not believe I have ever loved a woman more eply than my mate, ” said one Atralian WWII veteran, who went on to assert the relatnship wasn't homosexual. The l between gay love and straight mathip were difficult to discern for some.
NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN
Ackerley, an openly gay Brish war hero om World War One, wrote an acclaimed play tled The Prisoners of War upon his return to England. While Ackerley's work has not passed through to mastream textbooks, the works of a fellow gay ntemporary have. Absent om lson plans is Owen's apparent homosexualy, hidn by his fay but unvered by his bgrapher.
OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
Before the war's end, he spent time socialisg wh other gay Brish lerary lumari. But gay soldiers weren’t only fightg for the alli.
Magn Hirschfeld documented numero stanc of homosexualy among German soldiers durg World War One.
GAY PILOTS BRG LOVE OF AVIATN TO HELP KICK OFF PRI MONTH CEDAR RAPIDS
The gay Jewish doctor – who was later exiled by the Nazis – wrote of how German soldiers would risk severe reprimand to sneak off to the lols’ ho occupied France to have sex. Unr fire, gay men would charge to “the thickt ra of bombs and the most adly attacks, ” Hirschfeld wrote.
The experience of gay servicewomen closely paralleled their male unterparts. Ford wr that female homosexualy was ls acknowledged pole society than male homosexualy - many recs had never heard of the term ‘lbian’. Durg World War One and most of World War Two, there was no ncerted effort to velop a policy on homosexualy Atralia's ary.
The Amerins, however, were very ncerned about gay men the ranks. Rearch by Smaal and his lleague, renowned Atralian LGBT+ historian Graham Willett, found that the US reported to Atralia that they had disvered a large number of servicemen New Guea havg gay sex – and that Atralians were volved. “Homosexualy today is fed as beg attracted to your own sex, back then was largely fed by genr s – mascule or feme, 'bch' or 'butch', ” Smaal says.
NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN SPREADS ADVOCY BEYOND FLIGHT CK
Genr rol were pervasive even wh homosexual relatnships - the ‘girls’ New Guea would often take a receptive role durg sex. “It was difficult and plex enterprise – and there’s a temptatn to jt bury their head the sand, ignore and hope homosexualy go away, ” Smaal says.
NATNAL GAY PILOTS ASSOCIATN
‘Personaly typ’ and ‘thentic homosexuals’ were then able to be medilly discharged. In Atralia, a le mandatg discharge for homosexualy would ntue some form or other until the Keatg ernment’s repeal 1992.
NATNAL GAY PILOT’S ASSOCIATN HOLDS FIRST FLY- EVENT AT EASTERN IOWA AIRPORT
Homosexuals were “sexual viants who have a medil problem and should not be treated any differently to dg addicts, ” he said.
The Gay Ex-Servic Associatn was followed by 'G-force' 1996 and then by DEFGLIS 2002 – the Defence Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, Transgenr and Intersex Informatn Service.
JAGUARS NFL ACH OUT AS GAY US SPORTS FIRST
Today, members of the Atralian Defence Force march openly uniform at the Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras Sydney.
Special thanks to Nick Henrson of the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv and DEFGLIS for their assistance. I know some really nice gay people - male and female.