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.
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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.
Until 1999, if you were gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr, you were banned om servg the Brish Armed Forc. * homosexuality in 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. 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.