I joined the RAF in 1976 as an air trafficker, left in 1990 and qualified as a NATs air traffic controller. I retired in 2008. I controlled the hijacked Sudanese Airbus which landed at Stansted in 1997 with over 200 people on board, and the Royal Squadron BAe146 which nearly fell out of the sky the same year because some well-documented muppet hadn't put all the parts back in the engines after a service. Believe me, that aircraft came within a whisker of being a fireball in the approach lights, and I'm still not pleased about how many years it probably took off my life.
Now I've read all this stuff about gays and conferences for LGBTS and such like and I totally agree it's not a subject worth wasting money on in the present fiscal climate because nothing's worth wasting money on when people are getting shot at in Afghanistan on a daily basis. However, I'm sick to death of 'it's against my faith, and where does it say in the Bible', and since I'm an ocean-going, fully-rigged, civil-partnered lesbian, would anyone who with hind-sight was on either of the above planes like to stick their hands up and say they would have parachuted out of them because they didn't want to be in a plane which was being saved by a dyke please do so now? Or shall we just get on with our lives in 2010? For gawd's sake, moan if you like, I'll be out of here for good, because I really can't be bothered with this anymore. Over and out.