| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"PagCal" |
| Date: |
21 Feb 2005 06:03:16 AM |
| Object: |
Navy's new message: your country needs you, especially if you aregay |
With the US's troubles in recruiting, they should, along with Britain,
look at this pool of honest, hard working, God fearing recruits.
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(British) Navy's new message: your country needs you, especially if you
are gay
Admirals shed centuries of repression with pink press adverts
Patrick Barkham
Monday February 21, 2005
The Guardian
It is a liaison that would once have turned many military top brass
purple with rage. Five years after the ban on homosexuality in the armed
forces was lifted, the Royal Navy is entering into a partnership with
Stonewall and actively seeking gay recruits by advertising in the pink
press.
Subject to smutty innuendo ever since Churchill supposedly dismissed
Britain's naval tradition as "nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash", the
navy will today cast off centuries of repression and inhibition by
seeking Stonewall's advice on the recruitment and retention of gay and
lesbian sailors. In a transformation likened by activists to turning
round a supertanker, the navy will pay the pressure group for advice on
curbing prejudice and ensuring gay personnel have equal rights to
housing, benefits and pensions.
Despite the persistent swirl of sexual rumour around some of Britain's
most celebrated war heroes, homosexuality remained the last taboo in the
armed forces until 2000, when the government was forced by the European
court of human rights to withdraw its ban on homosexuality in the
military. Then, Stonewall was the sworn enemy of many admirals and air
marshals for taking the case of sacked gay servicemen to the European
courts. Openly gay soldiers and sailors have since seen active service
in Iraq, but relatively few of the estimated 2,100 gay and lesbian
sailors have felt sufficiently relaxed to come out since the ban was
lifted. A spokesman for the navy accepted that pockets of prejudice
remained and that there was "room for improvement" but said it was
"committed to establishing a culture and climate where people can
discuss their sexual orientation without risk of abuse or intimidation".
The partnership with Stonewall "will help the lesbians and gays within
the Royal Navy be more comfortable and honest about their sexuality if
they wish to", said the spokesman. "But no one has to reveal their
sexual orientation in the armed services. It's an entirely private matter."
There was once a "dark climate" in the navy, according to Lieutenant
Commander Craig Jones, the most senior openly gay officer across all
three armed forces. But he was now comfortable taking his partner to
official functions and could laugh off jokes about being posted to
Baghdad to "redecorate" the city.
He welcomed the link with Stonewall. "There is a historical culture of
banter in the armed forces. If people are able to acknowledge my
sexuality even through a little bit of well-intentioned banter, that's
fine. It makes me feel they are comfortable with the fact that I am gay.
It requires a certain robustness of character to be in the armed forces
but that does not mean you should tolerate anything that is quite
clearly inappropriate. In the last five years I've never had to reproach
anybody."
The navy's liaison with Stonewall was kept a closely guarded secret
during more than 12 months of negotiations. The group hopes the army and
the RAF will follow the navy's incursion into once-forbidden territory.
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, admitted he was surprised
by how far the navy's attitude to homosexuality had shifted in recent
years. "I never thought when I was recruited by Stonewall that I would
one day be issuing a media release featuring supportive quotes from the
Second Sea Lord."
He said he anticipated "upmarket saloon bar prejudice" against the
partnership, but insisted the navy was not simply "ticking boxes".
"The navy would not engage in this process if they did not think there
were real organisational benefits. They are not doing it to be touchy
feely." Steve Johnston, chairman of the Armed Forces Lesbian Lesbian and
Gay Association, said he hoped the new advertising campaign and the
retirement of implacably homophobic "old farts" will encourage more gay
servicemen and women to be open about their sexuality. Asked to leave
the army after his sexuality was investigated in 1990, Mr Johnston
called the navy's move "a major step forward" but said it would also be
greeted with sadness by many veterans who needlessly lost their jobs
over their sexuality in the past.
"Who would have considered 10 years ago that the navy would be
advertising in the pink periodicals? This is all the right moves in all
the right directions. Fortunately - and sadly - our work now is less and
less because the forces' welfare organisations are taking on our role."
By signing up to Stonewall's "diversity champions" programme, the navy
joins such organisations as British Airways, IBM and Sainsbury's.
Exchanging ideas on equal opportunities in the workplace during
"networking" sessions with such blue-chip companies is part of the
partnership, which will be overseen by Vice-Admiral Sir James
Burnell-Nugent, the Second Sea Lord.
"I am committed to ensuring the Royal Navy has a culture in which all
our people are valued for themselves and are thus able to give 100% to
their job," he said. "I look forward to working with Stonewall to help
make this happen."
Cmdr Jones said there were "an increasing number of officers who are out
and have good experiences of being gay in the armed services".
"There has been an enormous climate change in the armed forces over the
last five years. Many of the admirals, generals and air marshals who
were so concerned by this policy change must look back and think 'what
was all the fuss about?' It has been a total success. We also have
hundreds of gay and lesbian personnel who might otherwise have been sacked.
"I do recognise there may be some who have bad experiences. I hope they
have the confidence to report it. This is about building the confidence
of gay men and women so they can take part in naval society."
Queens and country
Lord Kitchener (1850-1916)
He never married and appreciated porcelain, fine fabrics and interior
decor, but it is disputed whether Horatio Kitchener was gay or was just
more interested in empire than the opposite sex. The hero of Sudan and
the Boer war, whose portrait encouraged millions to enlist for the first
world war, was declared gay by many historians. Little was known about
his sexual preferences, although a contemporary journalist remarked that
Kitchener "has the failing acquired by most of the Egyptian officers, a
taste for buggery".
Richard I (1157-1199)
A towering man and his mother's favourite, the third son of Henry II
earned the sobriquet the Lionheart for his campaigns in France and
crusades in the Holy Land. He married but never had children.
TE Lawrence (1888-1935)
The novelist and soldier hailed as Lawrence of Arabia was renowned for
his heroic role as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of
1916-1918. He was also subject to rumours about other liaisons,
particularly after a military colleague said he was hired to give
Lawrence masochistic beatings. Poems include dedications to male friends
while his writing, including his autobiographical account of his
struggle in the Middle East, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, also contains
richly homoerotic passages.
Alexander the Great (356BC-323BC)
The conqueror of the Persian empire and King of Macedon sported eyeliner
and a leather miniskirt in the recent Oliver Stone film, which outraged
audiences in the US. Alexander has long been claimed as a gay hero,
although controversialists and revisionists have also variously
portrayed him as a Freemason, a diabetic, a madman and the inventor of
chess.
Field Marshal Montgomery (1887-1976)
Howls of outrage greeted claims by his authorised biographer that
Britain's most famous commander in the second world war was a repressed
homosexual. According to Nigel Hamilton, Monty, who was married, wrote
letters to young boys he befriended betraying his homoerotic urges.
Nancy Mitford recorded the surreal experience of meeting Monty at a
postwar fashion show in Paris. Revisionist accounts of the lives of war
heroes, including Lord Nelson, General Gordon and Robert Baden-Powell,
have also made claims that they were homosexual.
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