'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment : NPR

Contents:

• OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
• A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS
• GAY PILOTS: FLYG OVER THE RABOW
• HISTOIR éROTIQU GAY
• SENR GAY LA PILOTE HISTOIRE S RENNTR
• 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT

OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS

Many are unaware of the ia that Santos-Dumont was gay. The history of homosexualy and aviatn is not wily rearched or for that matter acknowledged, yet there is a rich history volvg this quiet group the field startg wh one of the first pneers.

A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS

The aviatn muny is startg to foc on this group of dividuals startg wh the Natnal Gay Pilots Associatn (NGPA). Formed twenty years ago, the NGPA’s missn is to enurage gays and lbians to enter to the field of aviatn through tn, outreach programm and social events.

” Unfortunately this rgs te as gays and lbians still fight for social equaly.

GAY PILOTS: FLYG OVER THE RABOW

You don’t have to be gay to be part of the anisatn, but you need to be supportive of the lbian and gay muny. ” The NGPA provis an avenue for formg allianc wh bs and airl wh the aviatn muny while matag a fortable environment for gays and lbians to reach out for support. Well I'm not a pilot (although I really wanted to be one when I was younger), but I am the gay grandson of a mercial pilot (Robson > Mohawk > Allegheny > USAIr) my pilot grandfather gay?

Although she certaly wasn't homophobic, havg a few gay acquatanc herself, I still didn't know how she'd take . "Well, that's 'e I'm gay"My grandmother reactn was the bt. "Oh, I always thought your grandfather was gay"Now was my turn to react.

HISTOIR éROTIQU GAY

You don't re that I'm gay?

Unable to see anythg of the statn I’d flown so far to reach, I’d s at my hotel-room sk as I worked on my latt book, “Image a Cy: A Pilot’s Journey Across the Urban World, ” a memoir about growg up as a gay kid a small place and a pilot’s love letter to great metropolis, and wonred if might soon read as a memorial to a pla that had permanently, late sprg and wh most panmic rtrictns lifted, Montreal is bloomg. I’d turn my illumated globe and read out the nam of the ci on ; I’d assemble mol plan and move them down the nway I ma on my drser; I’d draw maps of the imagary cy that distracted and staed me, particularly whenever I stggled wh the realizatn that I was gay.

SENR GAY LA PILOTE HISTOIRE S RENNTR

After we’d checked to a hotel and sat down a rtrant whout anyone givg a send look, I wonred if I’d been too psimistic about the world and a gay kid’s future . Whatever the tth of Melville’s sexualy — as Andrew Delban not “Melville: His World and Work, ” ’s not easy to separate the tantalizg clu om the rponse of “gay rears who fd themselv drawn to him” — somethg impelled him to set out for the open ocean and the wonrs of distant ci.

Pilots are jt normal men and women and many of them of urse are also gay. But what is life the crew rooms and ckps of the world like for gay pilots?

Attus towards LGBT pilots general have improved greatly over the last few years but the pilots themselv have endured s of tolerance which ntu many parts of the Pettet of the Natnal Gay Pilots Associatn (NGPA) Ameri told : “We do have reports still to this day of homophobic cints, om the flight ck, aeromedil examers, and flight schools. NGPA also has members Europe, South Ai, Atralia, Asia and all over the Middle East – membership some plac where people n be imprisoned jt for beg gay where there is certaly a lot more discrimatn than we ever have had here the Uned Stat” In 1990 the NGPA was officially formed after a gatherg Provcetown, where people only knew each other on a first name basis, and intified each other wh some sort of aeroplane shirt.

'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT

J'ai nnu tout sort personn, religns, mos pensée, extrémist, flemmards mais ce qui m'a terpellé, ce sont l ux (voire trois à un moment) upl gay qui vivaient dans l appartements l'immble que garda ma mère. Inter, la libido, l'amour, j'ai mencé par tout ce qui touche à l'hétérosexualé avant dériver sur s imag très… gay… Et prendre à ce moment là tout l'étendue l'homosexualé. Mon père, à cette époque, n'éta pas urant, ma mère et lui ne se parla que pour une sle chose: m, pete ville avec ple d'histoire et BORDEL son nombre imprsnnant gay qui se chent dans l alentours.

Et c't falement là, dans le f fond la mpagne que j'ai exprimé totalement le fa d'être gay. Un gay vo prend ht et c't toute votre certu qui s'é que la guerre fût déclarée souvent avec ma mère, je retournais la voir quelqu week-ends, je lui annonçai un soir que j'étais gay, et lui présentai même mon pet ami lors d'un “voyage slaire” à Paris (ce qui t drôle, c't que c't plutôt un retour source pour moi, c voyag annuels avec l Arts Plastiqu). Sf qu'ils prétennt ssi sser du gay.