A Very Gay History of Sailors Pop Culture

Contents:

• WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
• SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP
• HELLO SAILOR!: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AT SEA
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK

Rictor Norton, at his webse Homosexualy Eighteenth-Century England, has llected an imprsive number of primary sourc, though few reference sailors. 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. 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. ' 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.

SD CONFINTIAL: INSI A LOST GAY PAST OF ‘FAIRY DIV,’ RAIDS AND A FALLEN ADMIRAL

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. 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. 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.

"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS

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. 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.

THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP

[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. 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.

HELLO SAILOR!: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AT SEA

'[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.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

This past sprg, bat trag before my ployment to Afghanistan, someone found out I was gay, walked up to me and said, "I'm glad I'm not ployg wh you, I wouldn't tst a fag wh my life.

I distctly remember one day when an stctor said, "Oh look at those faggots, " and then turned to sayg, "Wa, 's OK to be gay, YOU jt n't be gay. I feared I would be rejected by people I once was iends wh, terrified that the learship above me would look at me as ls of a man, or that any acplishment I have will be attributed to me beg gay, and not my mer. Tro1 Sailor Jack: the Other Si; Chapter 1 When Queer was Covert; Chapter 2 A Place of Freedom; Chapter 3 Speakg Gay Secrets; Chapter 4 Sea Wiv and Meat Racks; Chapter 5 Sequs, Sat and Stilettos; Chapter 6 Ho Land!

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

In 1952, the thors of an overheated btseller lled “USA Confintial” promised to blow the lid off the natn’s praved triumvirate of Communists, labor unns and gays. As the annual LGBT pri para and ftival approach this weekend, here are five surprisg facts about San Diego’s gay world before the Stonewall uprisg, the seri of New York Cy protts 1969 that birthed the morn fight for LGBT rights. The well-rpected 1990 book “Comg Out Unr Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women World War II” says so-lled “rough bars” San Diego, like Blue Jacket and Bradley’s, “tered to enlisted men of many rac, gay civilians and ‘tra’ (enlisted men and workg-class civilian men willg to go wh gay men).

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Whatever the se, many of them chose to stay San Diego, part of a wave of service members who transformed ci like San Francis, New York Cy and Los Angel to even bigger hot spots of gay culture.