Navy's new msage: your untry needs you, pecially if you are gay | UK news | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• ROYAL MAR SLANG: 27 PHRAS THAT ONLY MAKE SENSE TO BOOTNECKSUSE YOUR MON DOG AND GIVE SOME RICE!PLYMOUTHHERALDSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYGAYLE MCDONALDCONTENT EDOR05:00, 20 JAN 2018VIO LOADGVIO UNAVAILABLECLICK TO PLAYTAP TO PLAYTHE VIO WILL TO-PLAY SOON8CANCELPLAY NOWGET THE STORI THAT MATTER TO OUR MUNY STRAIGHT TO YOUR BOX WH OUR DAILY NEWSLETTERMORE 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 GET THE STORI THAT MATTER TO OUR MUNY STRAIGHT TO YOUR BOX WH OUR DAILY NEWSLETTERINVALID 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!
• AS A GAY WOMAN THE NAVY, I HAD TO LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE
• NAVY'S NEW MSAGE: YOUR UNTRY NEEDS YOU, PECIALLY IF YOU ARE GAY
• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

Image ptn, Claire Pickerg Wakefield library imag the diary wrer speakg a Yorkshire accentA diary wrten by a Yorkshire farmer more than 200 years ago is beg hailed as providg remarkable evince of tolerance towards homosexualy Bra much earlier than prevly imaged.

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy. "In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships.

ROYAL MAR SLANG: 27 PHRAS THAT ONLY MAKE SENSE TO BOOTNECKSUSE YOUR MON DOG AND GIVE SOME RICE!PLYMOUTHHERALDSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYGAYLE MCDONALDCONTENT EDOR05:00, 20 JAN 2018VIO LOADGVIO UNAVAILABLECLICK TO PLAYTAP TO PLAYTHE VIO WILL TO-PLAY SOON8CANCELPLAY NOWGET THE STORI THAT MATTER TO OUR MUNY STRAIGHT TO YOUR BOX WH OUR DAILY NEWSLETTERMORE 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 GET THE STORI THAT MATTER TO OUR MUNY STRAIGHT TO YOUR BOX WH OUR DAILY NEWSLETTERINVALID 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!

Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural.

AS A GAY WOMAN THE NAVY, I HAD TO LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE

"It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker. O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed".

Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers.

NAVY'S NEW MSAGE: YOUR UNTRY NEEDS YOU, PECIALLY IF YOU ARE GAY

‘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.

THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

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. 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.

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.