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.

Contents:

• 'I HID BEG GAY THE ROYAL NAVY FOR 20 YEARS, THEN MY FIRST LOVE DIED OF AIDS 2 DAYS BEFORE I LEFT'BEFORE THE BAN 2000, BEG LGBTQ+ THE ARY WAS CRIMAL AND FORMER LITENANT COMMANR PATRICK LYSTER-TODD HAD TO HI HIS SEXUALY FOR S WHICH ALMOST LED HIM TO TAKE HIS OWN LIFEGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMATT SPIVEYCONTENT EDOR11:05, 1 DEC 2022UPDATED11:35, 1 DEC 2022BOOKMARKPATRICK EXPLAS HOW LED A KD OF DOUBLE LIFE WHEN HE WAS YOUNGERSIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI MORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI INVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!
• GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD MORE THAN £45,000 AFTER BEG OUTED: ‘IT MA ME FEEL SUB-HUMAN’
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• 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.
• GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD £45,000 AFTER BEG FORCED TO E OUT ACMODATN ROW
• 'I WAS DISMISSED OM THE NAVY FOR BEG GAY'
• GAY WOMAN SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HER ‘DOUBLE LIFE’ SERVG THE ROYAL NAVY

'I HID BEG GAY THE ROYAL NAVY FOR 20 YEARS, THEN MY FIRST LOVE DIED OF AIDS 2 DAYS BEFORE I LEFT'BEFORE THE BAN 2000, BEG LGBTQ+ THE ARY WAS CRIMAL AND FORMER LITENANT COMMANR PATRICK LYSTER-TODD HAD TO HI HIS SEXUALY FOR S WHICH ALMOST LED HIM TO TAKE HIS OWN LIFEGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMATT SPIVEYCONTENT EDOR11:05, 1 DEC 2022UPDATED11:35, 1 DEC 2022BOOKMARKPATRICK EXPLAS HOW LED A KD OF DOUBLE LIFE WHEN HE WAS YOUNGERSIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI MORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI INVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!

‘Everythg’s gay when you’re unr way’ beme a mon adage. 'Homosexual' is a relatively recent term. In the past, men had sex wh each other but didn’t necsarily have a ‘gay inty’.

Homoerotic platonic love was not unmon. But homosexualy on ships was still illegal the Merchant Navy until 1994 and the armed forc until 1999. But now the Royal Navy has recently been announced number 10 Stonewall’s top 100 gay-iendly employers.

By referencg the nearly accintal act of 'sodomy, ' Cleland taps to the popular imprsn that sailors engaged homosexualy. Rictor Norton, at his webse Homosexualy Eighteenth-Century England, has llected an imprsive number of primary sourc, though few reference sailors.

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

Somethg that be clear Norton's work is that there was ltle or no legal distctn at the time between those who engaged a sgle same-sex act, those who were exclively homosexual, and anyone who fell between.

In his A Queer History of the Uned Stat, Michael Bronski pots out that the very term 'homosexual' wasn't vented until 1869 'to help nstct a narrative around a person fed by his or her same-sex sexual sir and actns. We nnot say that sailors who engaged homosexual acts intified as homosexual, nor n we say that others fed them as such before they were nvicted. Here I ed the term 'homosexual' to refer to clatns and acts, rather than as fg the sailors themselv.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

Brish society believed that a lack of accs to women gave rise to homosexualy, and there was perhaps no place the eighteenth century so exclively male as the navy. The legal notn that one is eher exclively homosexual or heterosexual n be seen the se of William Bailey.

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.

' Today we would regnize the facts as irrelevant to the act self, but eighteenth century law, a sgle homosexual act was equated wh beg exclively homosexual. Rodger argued his book The Woon World: An Anatomy of the Geian Navy that acts of homosexualy were not as mon the mid-eighteenth century Royal Navy as many assume:.

Consirg that the navy oped up thoands of young men for months on end whout accs to women, is surprisg how few homosexual cints rulted prosecutn.

Earle agreed that 'the crowd ndns of shipboard life ma difficult to nceal homosexual relatns om other members of the crew. Wh the threat of ath hangg over their heads, the unlikelihood of fdg a man wh the same sexual clatns, and the very real chance of tectn, even those men wh homosexual leangs faced many obstacl to actually engagg the act.

GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD £45,000 AFTER BEG FORCED TO E OUT ACMODATN ROW

Early the eighteenth century, the famo Puranil preacher Cotton Mather ma the nnectn between an terveng God and homosexual acts among sailors:. Though rare, homosexual acts did occur. Homosexualy was often overlooked, vered up, or treated as the lser crimal charge of 'uncleanls' to avoid the ath penalty.

'I WAS DISMISSED OM THE NAVY FOR BEG GAY'

Arthur Gilbert, his paper 'Buggery and the Brish Navy, 1700-1861, ' agreed that officers avoid accg their ras of engagg homosexualy. For what n be seen as a victim-ls crime (at least s of nsensual homosexual acts) officers would unrstandably be reluctant to prosecute seafarers. An addnal difficulty for the rearcher is the reluctance of people the perd to speak about homosexualy.

Rodger and Gilbert agree that rerds are sparse, but differ the official approach to homosexualy. Rodger argu that homosexualy and homosexual acts were almost entirely absent the navy and treated wh difference, while Gilbert believed to be unmon but unniably prent and treated wh dranian btaly.

Gilbert, meanwhile, argued that there was a general fear of perceivg the Navy as rife wh homosexualy. He believed that fear of beg pated as a homosexual stutn motivated officers to be overzealo punishments when they were forced to nont them urt.

GAY WOMAN SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HER ‘DOUBLE LIFE’ SERVG THE ROYAL NAVY

[20] Stark agre wh Gilbert: 'Englishmen, unlike other European men, did not approve of any show of affectn between men, ' bee 'a male homosexual was a threat to the very ncept of malens. A homosexual was stereotyped as effemate; he, like a woman, was superficial, perverse, weak, and v.

In short, Rodger believ that homosexualy was so nsequential that barely registered the mds of officers. Gilbert and Stark, on the other hand, thought that officers feared a perceptn by the general public of the Royal Navy as an herently homosexual stutn. '[23] Hawks' anecdote supports Gilbert's argument that homosexualy was wily feared the Navy, but is the only reference I've e across yet that even impli homosexualy throughout the urse of the Sailors' Memoirs Project.

Both Gilbert and Rodger agree that homosexual acts were treated as a crime that rried an unually harsh punishment, and for this reason was sometim overlooked. This mak the task of exhumg the prevalence of, and attus toward homosexualy exceedgly difficult and sometim, the words of Gilbert, 'impossible. Whether out of difference or fear, homosexualy was largely an absent or taboo topic for eighteenth century sailors.