'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.

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.

A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS

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

GAY PILOTS: FLYG OVER THE RABOW

” 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.

HISTOIR éROTIQU GAY

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.

SENR GAY LA PILOTE HISTOIRE S RENNTR

"Oh, I always thought your grandfather was gay"Now was my turn to react.

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

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. 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.