Being gay in the royal navy
25th Anniversaries of LGBT+ Military Inclusion Part One – The Battle Through the Courts
25th Anniversaries of LGBT+ Military Inclusion
Part One – The Battle Through the Courts
The 1967 Sexual Offences Act partly decriminalised queer acts ‘in private, provided that the parties possess consent thereto and possess attained the age of twenty-one’, but added an exemption to the Armed Forces, putting them totally out of step with the new law of the land and resulting in what would change into known as the “Gay Ban”.
Individuals outed or accused of being Gay, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, would be hunted down and removed from military service. But that would never halt LGBT+ individuals stepping up to serve their territory, as they always had. In this new environment, LGBT+ members of the Armed Forces were forced to live shadow personas and secret lives, always with the threat of bullying, assault, investigations by the Armed Forces’ Unique Investigations Branches (SIB) and, ultimately, being thrown from service, regardless of rank, role or distinguished or exemplary service. The blanket ban applied to everyone, including those who had joined as teenagers, of
10 Feb 2021LGBT+ History Month: Roly's Story
This LGBT+ History Month we would appreciate to bring you some of the stories of LGBT+ military personnel and veterans who served both pre and post ‘gay ban’.
My name’s Roly Woods and I’m a serving Commander in the Royal Navy, currently working in the Maritime Operations Centre at Northwood HQ, from where all Royal Navy operations world-wide are controlled.
I actually unified the RN by steam train – no, I’m not quite so antique that I can remember the golden age of steam (it was the Dart Valley tourist train) but the Navy I linked in 1978 was reminiscent in many ways of the Victorian era:
- It was illegal to be gay in the military.
- You’d get a dishonourable discharge if found to be gay, with the consequent impact on employment opportunities outside.
- We were regularly lectured on the wrongs of being lgbtq+, including about the negative impact on team cohesion and operational effectiveness.
- Homosexuals were considered to be a threat to security because of the risk of blackmail. This of course neatly ignored the fact that we were only blackmailable because system said it was wrong to be gay!
So, in some ways it’s tough to believ
Pride Month 2023 - Exploring LGBTQ+ history in the Royal Navy
The Queer and Now
For three hundred and ten years the Royal Navy hunted down, persecuted and sometimes even hanged homosexuals launch within their ranks. Execution ceased after 1861, but being imprisonment remained a reality. The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 did little to sway the opinion of the Armed Forces, and it was not until 2000 that real convert was made.
The Royal Navy were not alone in their persecution of homosexuals, or indeed anybody else from within the LGBTQ+ people, but for some there is still the image that they promote an aggressive, macho, alpha-male stereotype.
However, over the past twenty-three years, the Royal Navy has become a beacon of progress and acceptance. In a statement on their website in January 2020, the Royal Navy wanted to send a clear message: “the Naval Service welcomes all talent to its ranks, regardless of your sexual orientation or gender identity” – a far cry from the “gay panic” that gripped Naval officials just forty years previous.
To identify the 20th anniversary of the bar on homosexuals serving in the forces being lifted in 2020, naval bases an
I'm a British Royal Navy officer — and I'm gay. I feel appreciate I've had to operate twice as hard as my straight peers.
Editor's note: Insider has verified the identity of the penner, but they asked to remain anonymous to retain their privacy.
On my 25th birthday, I made a life-changing decision: I unified the Royal Navy as a warfare officer. Not long after, I made another bold decision: I came out as same-sex attracted to my fellow officers.
After that, one thought repeated in my head: "Don't let them think gays are weak."
I repeated that thought as I crawled through the mud in the pouring rain and stumbled over hills in the snow. It became my driving force during training. As motivating as the thought was, I later realized I was putting myself in a box that no one else was.
Coming out as gay in the Royal Navy went surprisingly smoothly
When I joined the Navy three years ago, I already had a degree in social sciences and secured my dream profession. But I was still lacking something. I wanted wider life experience, real-world skills, and more confidence. When I met up with an old partner who had joined the military, I saw how he improved himself. So I took his tip and
'I was dismissed from the Navy for being gay'
He said the judicial process he experienced was akin to "what we denounce Iran of".
"I had no access to a lawyer, I was interrogated for days, I was in cells, then I was put on property arrest for six or seven weeks."
One Friday afternoon, he was told his trial would take place the following Monday morning. He entered a at fault plea, he said, because "otherwise there's a nice chance of being in the cells" as adv as being dismissed.
He said he was told before the trial what the outcome would be, and was only allowed to speak to the sailor defending him for five minutes beforehand.
He added: "In that whole process, I was not allowed to say one single word and no right of appeal at all."
The day he was dismissed was "terrible". Chris said: "I woke up in the morning in a nice warm bed, with something to consume, meals. By the afternoon I was out on the streets homeless with no bed, no food."
He said his family did not accept him, and he considered killing himself.