As "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end, we sent Chris Heath to terview dozens of gay servicemen om the past and prent to fd out what life was really like as Ameri's ary stggled wh s last great inty crisis
Contents:
- OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
- 30 FAMO GAY PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD
- ABSOLUTE LEGENDS: THE GAY HERO OF THE BATTLE OF BRA
- 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
- OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
- JOHN TRAVOLTA HAD GAY RELATNSHIP WH HIS PILOT FOR SIX YEARS, FORMER ASSISTANT CLAIMS
OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
Gay men like Ian Gleed served wh distctn on the ont le, fdg love and relatnships while they served their Kg and untry... * famous gay pilot *
The history of homosexualy and aviatn is not wily rearched or for that matter acknowledged, yet there is a rich history volvg this quiet group the field startg wh one of the first pneers. Formed twenty years ago, the NGPA’s missn is to enurage gays and lbians to enter to the field of aviatn through tn, outreach programm and social events. ” The NGPA provis an avenue for formg allianc wh bs and airl wh the aviatn muny while matag a fortable environment for gays and lbians to reach out for support.
Pl TibbetsIn the wee hours of Augt 6, 1945, Brigadier General Pl Tibbets climbed aboard the Enola Gay – a -29 Superfortrs bomber named after his mother – en route to Hiroshima.
By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was remend by major LGBT groups and style guis to scribe people attracted to members of the same sex, although is more monly ed to refer specifilly to men. He was also a victim of mid-20th Century attus to homosexualy and 1952 he was arrted bee beg homosexual was illegal Bra at this time.
30 FAMO GAY PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD
One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. * famous gay pilot *
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I uldn’t be any more happy, fortable wh myself, and proud, ” he said at the time. In 1964 Allan Horsfall and a group of iends set up the North Wt Homosexual Law Reform Commtee, even givg out his home addrs as the base for the anizatn. It beme the first mpaigng anizatn outsi of London set up and n by gay men, and s work directly led to homosexualy no longer beg illegal.
Later the North Wt Commtee was transformed to the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly (CHE), which was the largt LGBT anizatn there has ever been the UK, wh more than 5, 000 members and 120 lol groups all over the untry when was at s biggt. Goronwy was scribed as the “most perceptive member of the mtee”, and the one who succsfully argued that the mtee should take evince directly om homosexual men.
ABSOLUTE LEGENDS: THE GAY HERO OF THE BATTLE OF BRA
* famous gay pilot *
Mark Ashton was an Irish gay rights activist who -found the Lbians and Gays Support the Mers Movement wh close iend Mike Jackson. There are currently 54 LGBT MPs the Hoe of Commons, and 2015 was clared the gayt parliament the world due to s proportn of LGBT members.
In 2019 he received France’s hight civilian award, the Legn d’honnr, by Print Emmanuel Macron, who lled him one of the first gay artists to give a voice to the LGBT muny.
He and his partner David Furnish were among the first upl the UK to get a civil partnership 2005, when the law was changed to allow gay relatnships to be legally regnized.
'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
In 1978, he helped troduce the cy’s first LGBTQ+ rights ordance, which Milk referred to as “the most strgent gay rights law the untry, ” acrdg to The Tim. Jt Fashanu was Bra’s first openly gay footballer, and although 30 years have passed he remas the only male footballer to reveal his sexualy while playg profsnally the top tiers. Lambda is an Amerin civil rights anizatn that foc on lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) muni as well as people livg wh HIV/AIDS (PWAs) through impact ligatn, societal tn, and public policy work.
He wrote pamphlets about beg gay Germany and, Augt 29, 1867, Ulrichs spoke Munich at the Congrs of Jurists to mand legal equal rights for all sexuali. Volkmar Sigch, a leadg German scholar sexual science, scribed him as “the most cisive and fluential pneer of homosexual emancipatn … world history.
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
Through fellow soldier and poet Siegied Sassoon, Owen was troduced to a sophistited homosexual lerary circle which broaned his outlook and creased his nfince rporatg homoerotic elements to his work. They also played an tegral role nvcg the Ain Natnal Congrs, South Ai’s lg polil party, to formally regnize gay and lbian rights the untry. As part of Forc Network's Absolute Legends seri, we've been lookg at jt a few of the ary's numerable, credible people and Stephen Bourne reveals how, durg a rare perd of tolerance the Send World War, gay men like Ian Gleed served wh distctn on the ont le, fdg love and relatnships while they served their Kg and homosexualy remaed a crimal offence the UK until the 1960s, the banng of gay recs the armed servic was not lifted until 2000.
However, homosexualy was unofficially tolerated by the armed servic for the duratn of the Send World gay men uld be open and were protected by their ras. Others beme ‘masts’ gay men existed a risky world where tolerance was far om spoke about same-sex relatnships that took place bee outed gay men faced beg urt-martialled, imprisoned and thrown out of the servic on the grounds that homosexualy would stroy the morale of the troops. Although he had boyiends, his fay probably never knew that Gleed was homosexual, and was fifty years before the tth me out when, a BBC televisn documentary, one of his wartime lovers, Christopher Gotch, scribed his relatnship wh Gleed at the RAF statn where they were both Gleed learned to fly privately before he joed the RAF at the age of pleted his ‘wgs’ urse on Christmas Day 1936.
OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
” Stephen Bourne’s Fightg Proud – The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served Two World Wars is published by I B Tris and is now available paperback (£11. 'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason.
KPBS' Steve Walsh has the WALSH, BYLINE: For most of his six years the Navy, Litenant Adam Adamski says he felt supported as an openly gay pilot.
JOHN TRAVOLTA HAD GAY RELATNSHIP WH HIS PILOT FOR SIX YEARS, FORMER ASSISTANT CLAIMS
And I saw my drs wh draped over and around the TV, and there was hardre gay porn His uniform was wrapped around a TV playg pornography. ADAMSKI: I received numero lls om people that are the closet that squadron, both men and women, and openly gay service members tellg me that they are upset and that they don't thk the climate, pecially for pilots, is a good climate that squadron and that they thk I should report The don't ask, don't tell policy end a ago, allowg LGBT service members to serve openly. The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty.
"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.