Gays in the RAF
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: firmly on dry land
Age: 81
Posts: 1,541
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We have had an increasingly robust health and safety regime for more than 20 years but it is the younger elements that are invincible and inclined to take risks. Older heads can see these risks and decide when the risk is acceptable - on operations or saving life perhaps - and when they are not, during training or exercises for instance.
Moving to the female issue, a retired policeman opined that a policewoman on the beat removed two policemen on the ground. Without the policewoman you may have had two policemen. With a policewoman she was more likely to be injured and the policeman was more inclined to render assistance to her than to act independently.
To the OP, the older hands have seen the effect, or rather lack of effect, and can accept change. It is the younger, Sun reader, where gay-bashing and homophobia exist where it can still be an issue.
As long as you pull your weight then no probs. If you try and play a minority card then you will lose all respect.
Hellbound
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Blighty
Posts: 554
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Interesting thread (ignoring all the tosh). I know someone that went to Gay Pride and realised that the lifestyle they wanted was not compatible with the Service. They left. To go the other way is interesting. I don't see why we should not recruit from all parts of society, just interesting that recruiting at what is a fairly flamboyant and in-your-face event might give people the wrong impression that every base will have a gay club.
In my experience (3 gay chums, 2 of which I would be happy to go to war with, one turned into a bit of a joke of his own making), those who get on with their jobs and are good at them are respected as such. Screaming queens tend to get frowned upon.
I don't see introducing your partner as provocation, depends how it is done. Do it the same way as everyone else is introducing wives/girlfriends (don't rush to the front) and if Mrs Staish takes offence then she is not worth knowing.
IMO.
In my experience (3 gay chums, 2 of which I would be happy to go to war with, one turned into a bit of a joke of his own making), those who get on with their jobs and are good at them are respected as such. Screaming queens tend to get frowned upon.
I don't see introducing your partner as provocation, depends how it is done. Do it the same way as everyone else is introducing wives/girlfriends (don't rush to the front) and if Mrs Staish takes offence then she is not worth knowing.
IMO.
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: UK
Posts: 1,608
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
to ask if I should openly say that I am a stamp collector to my new work colleagues?
Unquestionably straight myself, but do know many of other persuasions. Those who are friends of mine are normal people: they do not stand out or wear their sexuality as a badge. The same goes for friends of mine who are straight as well.
In fact, those friends of mine who are not straight do more for the values of commitment, fidelity and partnership than a large number of straight people that I know. Consequently, aside from the religious point, I cannot for the life of me see any objection to gay marriage or civil partnership whatsoever.
Moving back to military life: those of you who think the military outdated in attitude to gays really have neither experienced life in some other businesses nor travelled widely enough outside the UK...
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
The MiG-15 entered VVS service in early 1949, with the USSR announcing its existence to the West with 45 MiG-15s overflying Moscow during the May Day parade of that year. It was assigned the NATO codename of "Fagot", meaning a "bundle of wood for burning" -- not "Faggot", an insulting comment on its sexual orientation and a common misspelling of the codename
.
.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: lancs.UK
Age: 77
Posts: 1,191
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Actually, P.N. according to my Concise OED, either spelling is acceptable and also applies to a dish of chopped, baked Liver. (peas 'n faggots)
reverting to the thread, when i was young, I was taught "discretion is the better part of valour"....entirely apposite.
reverting to the thread, when i was young, I was taught "discretion is the better part of valour"....entirely apposite.
Excuuuuuuuuse me! Gaipilot, aren't you being a bit presumptious in assuming that the Station Commander will be a bloke and have a wife. Haven't you considered the possibility that your Station Commander might be a woman? She may, like you, be gay; possibly straight or even completely celibate in any direction and not give a tinker's cuss if you are straight, listing to port or spiral. What if your Station Commander is a bloke, gay and takes an instant dislike to you because he is deeply jealous of your life partner?
Behave like a %uckwit and people will treat you with the contempt you deserve - being a gay %uckwit won't make much difference.
Behave like a %uckwit and people will treat you with the contempt you deserve - being a gay %uckwit won't make much difference.
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I don't understand.
How can anyone be gay now-a-days. Not when there is JPA, the new imprest system, no descent dets and to top it all off you've got the credit crunch.
NO I am definitely not gay, in fact it would be safe to say I am definitely on a bit of a downer!
How can anyone be gay now-a-days. Not when there is JPA, the new imprest system, no descent dets and to top it all off you've got the credit crunch.
NO I am definitely not gay, in fact it would be safe to say I am definitely on a bit of a downer!
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Somewhere flat
Age: 68
Posts: 5,561
Likes: 0
Received 45 Likes
on
30 Posts
I think that I am a lesbian trapped inside a man's body. I saw a video once and there was nothing that those girls were doing that I wouldn't have done.......