Navy gays
U.S. Navy Makes History By Naming Ship After LGBTQ Civil Rights Leader Harvey Milk
“Today’s historic ceremony is so much more than naming a ship after the legendary Harvey Milk. It is further evidence of the profound progress on LGBTQ equality we continue to produce as a nation," said HRC President Chad Griffin.“In his bold and unabashed advocacy, Milk inspired LGBTQ people for generations. And in her tireless career and service, Paula Neira has played a major role in lifting the ban on transgender service members. As we work to fulfill our shared vision of equality for all LGBTQ people, we are grateful to the Joined States Navy and Secretary Ray Mabus for their continued direction in ensuring all sailors possess the dignity and respect they deserve.”
“Like Harvey Milk, hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ service members have defended our freedoms by serving in the military," said HRC spokesperson Stephen Peters, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and spouse of an active duty Marine. “Secretary Mabus’ decision to name a ship after Ha
“I did it for the uplift of humanity and the Navy”: FDR's Same-sex attracted Sex-Entrapment Sting
Sherry Zane sheds light on a dark covert operation that targeted homosexual Navy men.
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On Protest 16, , 14 Navy recruits met secretly at the naval hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, anxiously awaiting directions for their unused assignment. The senior operatives explained that the volunteers were free to abandon if they objected to this extraordinary mission: a covert operation to entrap homosexual men under the authority of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).
By the end of the sting, investigators had apprehended more than 20 accused sailors and imprisoned them aboard a broken-down ship in Newport harbor. Anxious and afraid, the suspects remained in solitary confinement for nearly four months before they were officially charged with sodomy and &#;scandalous conduct.&#; The incident also foreshadowed laws and policies that the future President Roosevelt would lay i
No Longer Silent: A Story of LGBTQIA+ Service in the Navy
For centuries, LGBTQIA+ sailors served their state in silence. From the early days of Continental Navy, through USS Constitution’s active sailing years, and into the 20th century, homosexuality was a crime subject to punishment by court martial, usually resulting in discharge. Beginning in World War II, the military instituted an outright ban on homosexual service members.1 It wasn’t until that a new rule colloquially called “Don’t Question, Don’t Tell” (DADT) took effect, theoretically lifting the ban by suspending questions and discussions among military personnel about sexual orientation.2
Brooklyn native Robert Santiago unified the U.S. Navy in , during the military’s ban on LGBTQIA+ people serving openly in the armed forces. At the time, the question on year-old Santiago’s mind was, “What’s going to come about while I’m in service, while I’m wearing the uniform?” Santiago, who is gay, resolved that he would do everything workable to finish at least one tour of duty. “I was very attentive the first couple of years, when
Pride Month - Exploring Homosexual 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 found within their ranks. Execution ceased after , but life imprisonment remained a reality. The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in did little to sway the opinion of the Armed Forces, and it was not until that real change was made.
The Royal Navy were not alone in their persecution of homosexuals, or indeed anybody else from within the LGBTQ+ community, but for some there is still the image that they promote an hostile, 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 , the Royal Navy wanted to send a distinct 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 mark the 20th anniversary of the