Until 1999, if you were gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr, you were banned om servg the Brish Armed Forc.
Contents:
- 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.
- BRISH SOLDIERS SACKED FOR BEG GAY N GET THEIR MEDALS BACK
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.
The ban on gay people servg the ary meant the litenant manr spent a fearg imprisonment. As soon as was lifted he sisted on speakg out – whatever the st * homosexuality british navy *
‘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.
BRISH SOLDIERS SACKED FOR BEG GAY N GET THEIR MEDALS BACK
* homosexuality british navy *
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.
The Royal Navy and Royal Mar have been named as one of the UK’s top employers for their mment to lbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgenr staff. * homosexuality british navy *
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.
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.