A gay Royal Navy officer has been award more than £45,000 after beg outed to his lleagu followg a dispute over army acmodatn.
Contents:
- I'M A BRISH ROYAL NAVY OFFICER — AND I'M GAY. I FEEL LIKE I'VE HAD TO WORK TWICE AS HARD AS MY STRAIGHT PEERS.
- I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
- THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO JAIL IN ENGLAND JT FOR BEG GAY
- FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS
- GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD MORE THAN £45,000 AFTER BEG OUTED: ‘IT MA ME FEEL SUB-HUMAN’
- BRISH ARMY GENERAL SET TO E OUT AS GAY
- AS A GAY OFFICER I SAW HOW HOMOPHOBIC THE POLICE ARE
I'M A BRISH ROYAL NAVY OFFICER — AND I'M GAY. I FEEL LIKE I'VE HAD TO WORK TWICE AS HARD AS MY STRAIGHT PEERS.
* british gay officer *
I joed the Royal Navy three years ago and me out as gay to my fellow officers. Dpe the Royal Navy's homophobic history, the other officers accepted me.
But I still felt the need to ph myself harr than most to prove gay men aren't wards.
I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
Not long after, I ma another bold cisn: I me out as gay to my fellow officers. After that, one thought repeated my head: "Don't let them thk gays are weak.
As motivatg as the thought was, I later realized I was puttg myself a box that no one else out as gay the Royal Navy went surprisgly smoothlyWhen I joed the Navy three years ago, I already had a gree social scienc and secured my dream job.
THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO JAIL IN ENGLAND JT FOR BEG GAY
Barely an hour later, I was headg ashore when I overheard one sailor tellg another about me beg gay. Dpe 68% of the public opposg the ban 1999, a survey of ary personnel the mid-'90s found that 95% of rponnts said they would prefer not to serve alongsi homosexuals, the BBC reported.
FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS
Origally, was feared that the arrival of gays to the ary would create an " vers them" mdset, disptg the uny required for operatnal effectivens. After beg betrayed, ptured, and sentenced to ath, his last words were: "Let be known homosexuals are not wards. " This quote expos a fear trsic to my gay experience — a fear that my sexualy mak me ferr.
GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD MORE THAN £45,000 AFTER BEG OUTED: ‘IT MA ME FEEL SUB-HUMAN’
But as a gay man, I have been fightg my whole life to enjoy the very privileg I am entled to as both a beholr and protector of them. I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. He is old now – 81 – but the events of his youth, when Bra hated gay men, still is 50 years this month sce the laws forbiddg sex between men were overturned England and Wal – laws that led to the nvictn of World War II breaker Alan Turg, the rceratn of Osr Wil, and thoands more jailed like Biddlebe.
“At that time I had never heard the word ‘homosexual’, ” he says – nor “queer”. It would be another before people ed the word “gay” to mean anythg other than happy, and another 15 before sex between men beme law agast “buggery” – as the offence was known – dated back to 1533, but 1885, the related offence of “gross cency” was add, outlawg any sexual ntact between such, the law did not only mean jail; s impact sd out, ntrollg and suffotg: an all-pervasive prison.
BRISH ARMY GENERAL SET TO E OUT AS GAY
Generatns of gay men (there was no law agast lbianism) died wh the lie. “Although I’d been a practisg homosexual sce I was 9 or 10!
AS A GAY OFFICER I SAW HOW HOMOPHOBIC THE POLICE ARE
’” The doctor also ed the word “homosexual”. ” He did not realise, however, that gay men exist everywhere.
“I thought homosexuals were only the navy.