Navy chiefs orred secret purge of gay sailors | UK news | The Guardian

gay in the royal navy

A retired Royal Navy litenant manr has said that as a gay woman the Brish Armed Forc and she was forced to live a "double life". 

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ROYAL NAVY HAS E A LONG WAY SCE DAYS OF THE GAY BISERTHIS SUMMER, ROYAL MAR AND SAILORS FLEW THE FLAG FOR THE LGBT+ MUNY AT PRI EVENTS - BUT THE NOT SO DISTANT PAST, ONLY BOATS ULD BE OPENLY GAY...PLYMOUTHHERALDSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMAX CHANNONOVERNIGHT EDOR (LIVE NETWORK)16:17, 30 AUG 2019UPDATED07:11, 31 AUG 2019THE ROYAL NAVY FLYG THE FLAG FOR THE LGBT+ MUNY AT MANCHTER PRIGET 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!

This summer, Royal Mar and sailors flew the flag for the LGBT+ muny at Pri events - but the not so distant past, only boats uld be openly Gay... * gay in the royal navy *

The Royal Navy - and ed society - has e a long way sce the days when s boats had nam like HMS Gay Biser, HMS Gay Charger and HMS Gay Bombardier. The vsels were among twelve 'Gay Class' fast patrol boats, all named after ary rol prefixed wh the word 'Gay', that served wh the Royal Navy om the early 1950s - durg a time when actually beg gay was still a crimal offence the UK. The ban on homosexuals servg the armed forc was only lifted January 2000 - s after beg gay was crimalised by the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967.

'I HID BEG GAY THE ROYAL NAVY FOR 20 YEARS, THEN MY FIRST LOVE DIED OF AIDS 2 DAYS BEFORE I LEFT'BEFORE THE BAN 2000, BEG LGBTQ+ THE ARY WAS CRIMAL AND FORMER LITENANT COMMANR PATRICK LYSTER-TODD HAD TO HI HIS SEXUALY FOR S WHICH ALMOST LED HIM TO TAKE HIS OWN LIFEGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMATT SPIVEYCONTENT EDOR11:05, 1 DEC 2022UPDATED11:35, 1 DEC 2022BOOKMARKPATRICK EXPLAS HOW LED A KD OF DOUBLE LIFE WHEN HE WAS YOUNGERSIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI MORE 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 SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI INVALID 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!

A gay Royal Navy officer has been award more than £45,000 after beg outed to his lleagu followg a dispute over army acmodatn.  * gay in the royal navy *

Back 2002, the BBC reported: "The Royal Navy was so gripped by a secury panic over gay servicemen the late 1960s, admirals believed at least half of the entire fleet had 'sned homosexually'. "Documents released by the Public Rerd office reveal manrs buried a seri of sndals cludg homosexual affairs on an aircraft rrier, transsexual prostut the Far East and hundreds of men g a "male brothel" Bermuda.

GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD MORE THAN £45,000 AFTER BEG OUTED: ‘IT MA ME FEEL SUB-HUMAN’

The Royal Navy orred a secret crackdown on gay sailors and officers the late 1960s after an ternal quiry nclud that there was ample evince that homosexualy was so rife throughout the fleet that no ship was the practice unknown. * gay in the royal navy *

"One admiral nclud that homosexual activy was "rife" and a special quiry lled for more moral tn to prevent the fenc beg unrmed. "But the navy had long sisted that gay personnel were not only trimental to good disciple but also prey to blackmail. "It has been 52 years sce the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy the UK, and six years sce the UK voted to legalise same-sex marriage, givg same-sex upl the same legal rights as straight on.

GAY ROYAL NAVY OFFICER AWARD £45,000 AFTER BEG FORCED TO E OUT ACMODATN ROW

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. * gay in the royal navy *

” History of the Gay Class fast patrol boats The Gay Class boats were built between 1952 and 1954, at shipyards Teignmouth Devon, Southampton and Chertsey Surrey.

Developed om the MTB 538/539 class that served durg the Send World War, they were tend only to be an terim measure until the Dark-class fast patrol boats were troduced - but HMS Gay Charteer saw some 20 years service, before beg sold off 1971. And HMS Gay Dragoon even beme a film star of sorts, featurg the 1955 Ealg Studs crime film 'The Ship That Died of Shame', starrg Richard Attenborough. The last petrol powered warships to be built for the Royal Navy, 'The Gays' were fted as eher Motor Torpedo Boats or Motor Gun Boats - the former beg armed wh two 40mm guns and two 21-ch torpedo, and the latter wh a sgle 4.

Name Pennant Builr Lnched Fate Gay Archer P1041 Vosper 20 Augt 1952 Sold on 24 July 1963 Gay Bombardier P1042 Vosper 28 Augt 1952 Sold on 26 July 1963 Gay Bowman P1043 Vosper 6 November 1952 Sold on 24 July 1963 Gay Biser P1044 Vosper 19 December 1952 Sold on 31 January 1962 Gay Caribeer P1045 Thornycroft 22 January 1953 Sold on 31 July 1963 Gay Cavailer P1046 Taylor 23 January 1953 Sold on 25 July 1963 Gay Centurn P1047 Thornycroft 3 September 1952 Sold on 31 January 1962 Gay Charger P1048 Man Gil 12 January 1953 Sold January 1967 Gay Charteer P1049 Man Gil 12 June 1953 For disposal on 14 November 1971 Gay Dragoon P1050 Taylor 28 January 1953 Sold on 31 January 1962 Gay Fencer P1051 McGer & Co Ltd 18 Febary 1953 Sunk on 10 April 1968 Gay Forter P1052 McGer & Co Ltd 23 March 1954 Sold on 31 January 1962 LATEST ROYAL NAVY AND ROYAL MARINES NEWS HERE *Durg the Send World War the Royal Navy also sailed HMS Gay Vikg and HMS Gay Corsair, a pair of motor gun boats.

'I WAS DISMISSED OM THE NAVY FOR BEG GAY'

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 * gay in the royal navy *

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. 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. ' Today we would regnize the facts as irrelevant to the act self, but eighteenth century law, a sgle homosexual act was equated wh beg exclively homosexual.

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.

Rodger argued his book The Woon World: An Anatomy of the Geian Navy that acts of homosexualy were not as mon the mid-eighteenth century Royal Navy as many assume:.

Consirg that the navy oped up thoands of young men for months on end whout accs to women, is surprisg how few homosexual cints rulted prosecutn. Earle agreed that 'the crowd ndns of shipboard life ma difficult to nceal homosexual relatns om other members of the crew.

NAVY CHIEFS ORRED SECRET PURGE OF GAY SAILORS

Wh the threat of ath hangg over their heads, the unlikelihood of fdg a man wh the same sexual clatns, and the very real chance of tectn, even those men wh homosexual leangs faced many obstacl to actually engagg the act. Early the eighteenth century, the famo Puranil preacher Cotton Mather ma the nnectn between an terveng God and homosexual acts among sailors:. Homosexualy was often overlooked, vered up, or treated as the lser crimal charge of 'uncleanls' to avoid the ath penalty.

Arthur Gilbert, his paper 'Buggery and the Brish Navy, 1700-1861, ' agreed that officers avoid accg their ras of engagg homosexualy.

GAY WOMAN SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HER ‘DOUBLE LIFE’ SERVG THE ROYAL NAVY

For what n be seen as a victim-ls crime (at least s of nsensual homosexual acts) officers would unrstandably be reluctant to prosecute seafarers. Rodger argu that homosexualy and homosexual acts were almost entirely absent the navy and treated wh difference, while Gilbert believed to be unmon but unniably prent and treated wh dranian btaly. He believed that fear of beg pated as a homosexual stutn motivated officers to be overzealo punishments when they were forced to nont them urt.

[20] Stark agre wh Gilbert: 'Englishmen, unlike other European men, did not approve of any show of affectn between men, ' bee 'a male homosexual was a threat to the very ncept of malens. Gilbert and Stark, on the other hand, thought that officers feared a perceptn by the general public of the Royal Navy as an herently homosexual stutn.

'[23] Hawks' anecdote supports Gilbert's argument that homosexualy was wily feared the Navy, but is the only reference I've e across yet that even impli homosexualy throughout the urse of the Sailors' Memoirs Project. Both Gilbert and Rodger agree that homosexual acts were treated as a crime that rried an unually harsh punishment, and for this reason was sometim overlooked. This mak the task of exhumg the prevalence of, and attus toward homosexualy exceedgly difficult and sometim, the words of Gilbert, 'impossible.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY IN THE ROYAL NAVY

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. .

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