'I hid beg gay the Royal Navy for 20 years, then my first love died of AIDS 2 days before I left' - MyLondon

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!
• 'I WAS DISMISSED OM THE NAVY FOR BEG GAY'
• GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD £45,000 AFTER BEG FORCED TO E OUT ACMODATN ROW
• 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
• BRISH SOLDIERS SACKED FOR BEG GAY N GET THEIR MEDALS BACK
• NAVY CHIEFS ORRED SECRET PURGE OF GAY SAILORS

'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!

READ MORE: 'I was given a crimal nvictn jt for beg gay and ed my life - a pardon is not enough' 'I thought was a phase but didn't end for me'. He said: "I realised that if I wanted to have a reer the navy as well as beg gay that I was gog to have to work out how to keep two nflictg requirements apart. "I evolved a set of l which were no sex wh other service personnel, no boyiend and no gay iends.

'I WAS DISMISSED OM THE NAVY FOR BEG GAY'

" At the age of 18 Patrick went to a notor gay bar Earl's Court for the first time which had blacked out wdows for privacy. It was a time when partial crimalisatn of homosexualy meant that other than the privacy of your own home beg gay was crimal.

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

It took Patrick about two hours of circlg the venue and checkg he had not been followed before he had the nfince to walk through the door of the gay bar. Patrick said: "I knew that if I was found out I would be chucked out but I didn't realise then that was also a crimal offence the ary to be gay.

" In 1988, Patrick met a man the Rockg Dean, a sna equented by gay men jt east of Brighton who would go on to bee his first partner. After leavg the ary Patrick set up Gay Men's Health Portsmouth, volunteered at the rintial un of London's first centre for people wh HIV/AIDs lled Lighthoe, where he provid palliative to the termally ill young men his re.

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

He worked rtrants, gay bars and even TV, all the while volunteerg and mpaigng for LGBTQ+ rights, Patrick chaired Rank Outsirs who worked wh Stonewall throughout the 1990s to get the ban of LGBTQ+ ary personnel the Armed Forc lifted. Followg the turbulent years Patrick's life, Craig Jon, a Litenant Commanr of the Navy who me out as gay on the day the ban was lifted, me up wh the ia of wrg an anthology of stori of the LGBTQ+ ary personnel who had been left behd. Craig Jon, a Litenant Commanr of the Navy who me out as gay on the day the ban was lifted, me up wh the ia of wrg an anthology of stori of the LGBTQ+ ary personnel who had been left behd.

READ NEXT: Gay uple have 'dream' weddg London church after beg 'rejected' om 31 others first of s kd service 'I'm a gay man om Rwanda - arrivg Europe was like leavg a livg hell, you n't send LGBT+ asylum seekers over there' Homels woman told to live wh parents who 'threatened her wh gay nversn therapy'. Image source, Chris Fergon A review to the impact of a ban on LGBT people servg the ary is to be rried out, more than 20 years after the law was former Royal Navy medic who was dismissed om the ary for beg gay 1982 told BBC Rad's Good Morng Stland that the experience left him suicidal. He sists he was very discreet, and only a few other sailors who were also gay knew he was too.

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

It was illegal to be gay the UK ary until 2000, when the law was changed after four servicemen and women, who had been sacked over their sexual orientatn, won a se the European Court of Human to the change LGBT people servg were imprisoned if their sexualy or genr inty was disvered by the change the ary's handlg of homosexualy me 33 years after homosexual acts were crimalised between two nsentg adults over the age of 21 most Jon, of the chary Fightg Wh Pri, said he weled the review. A gay Royal Navy officer has been award £45, 000 after he was forced to e out followg a dispute over army anonymo serviceman told an employment tribunal he was discrimated agast by Navy guil on the provisn of hog for claimed that as a rult of the dispute he had to disclose his sexualy to succsfully argued that the Royal Navy breached the Equaly Act by cuttg the typ of acmodatn offered sgle men to jt one - while givg married upl the optn of two to choose tribunal found that the policy would have “a disproportnate effect on the group of Service Personnel who intify as gay” as members of the LGBT+ muny are “ls likely to be married or a civil partnership than heterosexual service personnel”. It was towards the end of his terview for a place at the prtig Brannia Royal Naval College that Craig Jon was asked if he had ever had ntact wh homosexuals.

Then, for good measure, “I said somethg like: ‘If I saw anybody who was gay, I’d walk the oppose directn. Back 1987, there was a ban on gay, bisexual and trans people jog Bra’s armed, then 20, was tellg the naval officers what they wanted to hear.

BRISH SOLDIERS SACKED FOR BEG GAY N GET THEIR MEDALS BACK

Over the past 21 years, sce the ban on gay personnel was repealed, he has mpaigned vociferoly for gay rights the armed forc - damagg his own advancement the week, the home secretary, Pri Patel, announced that all nvictns for nsensual homosexual activy will be wiped om the rerds.

“It was the first time I had any notn that I was part of anythg bigger – a gay muny – and was stctive to protect them.

“That night, I walked to my first gay bar and sat next to the man who would bee my hband and partner of the past 27 years.

NAVY CHIEFS ORRED SECRET PURGE OF GAY SAILORS

“When we met 1995, if we’d been ught, I’d have been arrted and sent to prison for six months for the crimal offence of homosexualy. It was a toxic environment and people were actively enuraged to report those who might be gay.

”Craig and Adam at a gay bar Key Wt, Florida, people nfsed to beg gay unr durs, he says.

” Today, Jon is touch wh three of 17 former lifeguards who were sacked for beg gay a sgle day, the 1970s. “The litenant lonel terviewg me leaned forward and said: ‘Jt before you go, I haven’t spoken to you about homosexualy but, based on the answers you’ve given me, I don’t believe ’s somethg I need to worry about, is ? I’m que a happy homosexual, ’ so I said: ‘No sir, I don’t thk so, ’ and he shook my hand and I left.