Gay Brish Royal Navy Officer Had to Work Twice As Hard

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.

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.

Not long after, I ma another bold cisn: I me out as gay to my fellow officers.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

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.

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. 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.

THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO JAIL IN ENGLAND JT FOR BEG GAY

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. 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! ’” The doctor also ed the word “homosexual”. ” He did not realise, however, that gay men exist everywhere.

FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS

“I thought homosexuals were only the navy. But spe now knowg he was gay, he had no ia how to act upon onboard ship.

“I was thkg, How do you regnise somebody [as gay]? I spoke to him and he told me what was gog on, that there were gays on the ship. He wasn’t gay.

GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD MORE THAN £45,000 AFTER BEG OUTED: ‘IT MA ME FEEL SUB-HUMAN’

Life beg gay is not that bad, you n pe – at least, I n pe, why uldn’t he? “Beg a ary man, a ary fay, 60 odd years ago, if his fay found out he was gay… It would be shame.

Turg subsequently killed Biddlebe served his sentence, a report was beg prepared that would beg the procs of overturng four centuri of legal opprsn agast gay Wolfenn report, as beme known, was missned by the Conservative ernment, and prised a mtee of experts, led by Lord Wolfenn, who nducted terviews wh people affected by the laws. The report nclud that “homosexual behavur between nsentg adults private should no longer be a crimal offence”. “The screw who was a naval chief petty officer – and gay – took down, we had a shower, he then turned off the water, turned on the steam and said, ‘Right fellows, you’ve got 10 mut.

Ten years after he left prison, and a after the Wolfenn report, the Labour ernment fally took s advice and repealed the laws crimatg gay men wh the troductn of the Sexual Offenc Act 1967. ” In gay pubs at the time, he says, was the “topic of nversn – some people thought was good, some people like me were a ltle sceptil, sayg, ‘They say we’re gog to be ee, but let’s wa and see. ’”The repeal, although still today referred to as the “crimalisatn” of homosexualy, was only partial.

BRISH ARMY GENERAL SET TO E OUT AS GAY

”And so, as a few dozen marchers swelled to hundreds of thoands, as discrimatory laws were torn down one by one, and as the pk triangl pned onto gay men by the Nazis morphed to lns of flutterg rabow flags, Keh Biddlebe rried on, workg, lovg, never fot what was done to him, or the man who uld not pe wh the shame. Last week, he received a Pri award om Attu, the gay magaze, which baffled him and which he dited to all those who suffered as he did.

AS A GAY OFFICER I SAW HOW HOMOPHOBIC THE POLICE ARE

“I like beg gay, ” he says.

He talks about the gay iends he had over the prev night for a fish supper. ”What advice would he have for young gay people today?

Eighteen guardsmen the ele Hoehold Divisn are beg discharged om the army for beg volved wh a homosexual magaze, and one officer is also beg lled on to rign his missn was announced the mons Mistry of Defence strsed that Bra’s secury had never been jeopardised through “Iron Curta blackmail.