Bisexual ex-navy radio operator allowed his medal

Getting that medal: Joe (right) . Picture PA & Daily Mail

Today Joe Ousalice (68) will get his Long Service and Good Conduct medal returned to him by the  MoD. In 1993 the Falklands veteran was dismissed from the Royal Navy after 18 years, because he revealed that he was bisexual.

He says "After the court martial was completed, a guy came in with a pair of scissors and said 'Sorry, mate, I need your medal', and just cut the medal off me.'
"He added: 'The Navy wasn't just my job, it was my life. But to do it I had to hide another important part of me, which I did because I loved the navy life so much I didn't want to give it up. But I shouldn't have been asked to choose.
"'I was made to feel like I was disgusting and in the end I was hounded out on some trumped up charges, and told that because I was attracted to men, my 18 years of service counted for nothing. It was heart-breaking. It took me years to recover.

Joe, today. Picture: Liberty

From the 1970s many people and organisations pressed for LGBT rights in the armed forces. The victory was finally won in 2000.
Liberty subsequently fought Joe's case and won it. Emma Norton, Joe's solicitor, (see pic) comments: 'It’s a great shame that Joe has had to take them [the MoD] to court to get them to see sense.
'But, because he did, he has paved the way for others to get some sort of justice too.”

Here's a link to Liberty's press release this morning:
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/news/press-releases-and-statements/mod-apologises-and-returns-medals-falklands-veteran-forced-out
In it Joe says: “I want other LGBT veterans to know they’re not alone, and that we all deserve the same recognition.”

I don't esteem the Daily Mail, but it's carrying a longer story about this than any other paper today - and it's positive:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7775817/Bisexual-Falklands-Royal-Navy-veteran-Joe-Ousalice-gets-medal-returned-him.html

Using the Mail 's publicity machinery may well well help publicise and win other cases, to get the sort of belated justice Joe is getting on this day. The paper appeals: "Are you a veteran who had a medal confiscated on the grounds of sexuality? Email lara.keay@mailonline.co.uk or call 0203 615 1637." 

Billy Budd (or gay sexuality at sea): See Opera North's new show next week

(Opera North’s production of Britten’s Billy Budd (2016), photos by Clive Barda).

Billy Budd, Benjamin Britten’s opera about an alpha seafaring man who comes a cropper amongst his all-male ship's company - or, arguably, an opera about how covert gay sexual desire on ships goes wrong - opens next week.

This new version is Orpha Phelan’s Opera North production. And the man playing that alpha male in half-Jamaican: Roderick Williams. This is a very daring choice as Black and Ethnic Minority seafarers were only 4 per cent of the navy and racism played a complex part in social relations on board. He may be the first man of colour to play the role.

Williams comments on race in opera too: In a game he plays he looks out across the auditorium:
“The game often doesn’t last long.I count the ethnic minorities. But I might get as far as my mother and stop there.”


Opening night is next Tues, Oct 18, in Leeds Grand Theatre.

For details including the tour list (Newcastle, Salford, Nottingham, Edinburgh) and booking links go to https://www.operanorth.co.uk/productions/billy-budd

Rehearsal picture by Tom Arber

I’ve asked Orpha Phelan the following questions, but sadly she is too busy to reply as yet::

~ This is a very ruggedly masculine subject. What attracted you to it?

~ What does a woman director bring to it?

~ What particular take do you bring to it, with all the awareness of gender you have as a woman knowing Scandinavia's now very equal oppsy society?

~ Women disguised as seamen are a hot topic. How do you think they might have fared on HMS Indomitable? Did that play any part in your thinking? In fact, did you consider having a cross-dressed woman play one of the sailors?

~ Britten is now known to be ‘homosexual’. To what extent were you bearing in mind his queer viewpoint and a then-homophobic society as you made your directorial decisions, particularly perhaps about the complex sexual desirousness that may have lain behind crew envy of Billy?


Sailor sexuality

Orpha‘s website, http://www.orphaphelan.com/ says:
‘Orpha has directed opera nationally and internationally for the last fifteen years. A favourite with Scandinavian audiences, she is the recipient of Denmark's most prestigious prize, the Reumert Award, for Best Opera Production 2016 for her production of Powder Her Face at the Royal Danish Opera.’

Here’s an image from Orpha's Powder Her Face, a “Don Giovanni for the Monica Lewinsky generation'.




Other Billy Budd productions by women

Glimmerglass Artistic Director Francesca Zambello directed Billy Budd for LA Opera in 2014. In a blog item about this Californian production, BREAKING THE SEXUAL CODES IN BILLY BUDD,
http://www.laopera.org/news/blog/Dates/2014/1/Breaking-the-Sexual-Codes-in-Billy-Budd/
an unknown blogger writes:
"In a moment when gay civil rights are a subject of fervent national debate, LA Opera presents Billy Budd - a work populated by people with secret feelings: composed by a closeted gay man; with a libretto written by E.M. Forster, also a closeted gay man. Forster described the resulting tension in the opera as “love constricted, perverted, poisoned, but never the less flowing down its agonizing channel; a sexual discharge gone evil.”

REVIEW: 19 OCT
I saw the opening night last night.
I appreciated it very much. I can't say 'enjoy' because the point is that this is about two bleak subjects: the way humans fail and maim each other, and the misery of living in an enclosed hierarchical world where rugged masculinity and repressed heterosexual desire stymie humanity in relationships.
So if audiences come away miserable that means they've got the message.
For that reason, Budd and his humane pal Dansker (Stephen Richardson) are indeed beacons of comradeship. And the patchy crew solidarity is cause for hope .
Apart from the production being educative in this way (every student of 18C history should go), it was also interesting to see the difference that a seafarer's racial identity did NOT make, in this version.
As an opera performance, the muted greys of the designer's palette were so right. And the ensemble scenes were a particular delight, hinting always at the huge power of the masses, physically below the few gold-braided individuals set on warring with Napoleon

Nancy Spain: Wrens and same-sex love

It's LGBT History Month. So it's appropriate to talk here about the most famous ex-Wren who loved women: broadcaster and writer Nancy Spain (1917–1964).

Second Officer Spain (fourth from right, front row) in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of Nick Werner Laurie, from Rose Collis's "A Trouser-wearing character: The Life and Times of Nancy Spain", Cassell, London, 1997.

Think of an early Sandi Toksvig. Exuberant, heavy-eyebrowed, a toughish-talking wit from Newcastle, Nancy Spain was one of the most dynamic, mould-breaking women of the 1950s - because she was so bold.
But she never came out in public – not least because it would have wrecked her career as writer.

And while someone’s relationship is her own business, Nancy’s private life is important because it shows us two things: that there were women who disregarded patriarchal norms; and that in the 1940s and 50s even the bold ones needed be very circumspect about revealing their secret if they didn’t want to be pilloried.

WRENS AND DARING
From 1940-44 Nancy was in the wartime Wrens in the London press office. So she was partly responsible for forming the image of the WRNS we still have today. Her jobs included spinning news and suppressing revelations - of the very kind that could have been made about her.
Of course there was never a public whiff of Wrens having unorthodox relationships, or even loving friendships. However, many sailors whispered the usual urban myth: that Wrens who didn’t across were secretly those who batted for the non-heterosexual side.

SEA INFLUENCES?
Does the sea link matter? Perhaps not. After all, Nancy was not a port-based or seafaring or even boat’s crew Wren. Nor was her main partner, Joan ‘Jonny’ Werner Laurie (1920-1964) (pictured below). And they didn’t meet until they’d both left the WRNS.
But being in the WRNS, a somewhat feminist-all-women organisation, at a time of loosened ties when many wartime service workers away from home were exploring daring new identities, was very helpful to Nancy in living in a way that felt right to her. Any wartime service is significant for that reason.

BOLD STYLE
Certainly Nancy’s boss was a role model for her in many way. Deep-voiced Esta Eldod , the WRNS principal Press Officer, lived with her dearest friend, promoted a photographic history of the WRNS that showed women as mechanics and in non-traditional roles, and was so confidently witty that that few would have dared to challenge her.
So this women-only, quite feminist organisation was a place where lower-ranked women would be shuffled away and whispered about, but higher-echelon women were supported in being unorthodox ‘characters’ living breezily, unmarried, in a style they chose.
Nancy went on to do so as a London journalist and writer, with several secret love nests. She had a son she passed off as Joan’s, and whom she may have had as a gift to Joan (who also had another live-in lover, Sheila Van Damm).

BIOGRAPHIES
Rose Collis’s biography of Nancy, A Trouser-wearing Character, devotes a chapter to Nancy’s time as part of naval services.

And Rachel Cooke’s brief biographical chapter in Her Brilliant Career comments on Nancy’s ‘swashbuckling social climbing … not for nothing did Nancy’s friend think of her as a pirate.’ Did the Jack Tar style rub off on her?
But Nancy also learned chutzpah from novelist Naomi Jacobs, says Rachel. And anyway by the time Nancy went to boarding school (Roedean) her character was formed, according to Rose.

TODAY
If Nancy hadn’t died young in a plane crash what might she have made of the queer-friendly climate that developed only ten years later, when women from Gateways, her lesbian club, helped develop a supportive culture?
Today the Navy’s 3,000 women include out lesbians. And the Navy is in Stonewall’s top 100 gay-friendly employers. Second Officer Spain would have been seen as perfectly unremarkable.

RN Second Sea Lord David Steel hands a pledge to Stonewall CEO Ruth Hunt, 2014.

Polari-ing all the way to the Malvinas/Falklands conflict

Photo courtesy of Hull Daily Mail, showing the most iconic gay man of the war, Roy 'Wendy' Gibson, a steward on the Norland.

If you want to read about gay seafarers' role, see my just-posted article in Polari magazine: http://www.polarimagazine.com/features/polari-ing-malvinas-falklands-conflict

It's a lite version of a paper I gave on May 20 at the National Museum of the Royal Navy conference: The Falklands War, 30 years on. That version also showed the extent of women seafarer's participation in that conflict.

Falklands Conflict seafarers: women & queers

I’ve been tracking down stories about GBT seafarers and women seafarers who were in the Falklands War. It’s for two articles, as well as a conference paper at the Falklands War 30 Years On conference at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth on May 19-20 2012. http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/documents/Falklands2012conferenceprogrammeMar12.pdf

Finding them is a needle in a haystack job, not least because so many survivors don’t want to talk about that traumatic time. Also many traditional historians prefer the story that only tough hetero boys were there, so it’s hard for people with hidden histories to speak out with confidence.

Researching has been fascinating. The best part of the process was this week:
• by a miraculous accident bumping into 'Wendy' the most famous gay seafaring man of that war, a steward on the Norland, and finding he’d let me interview him.
• discovering that a pioneer woman was there doing ‘men’s work’. She was a Second Mate on the BP tanker British Tamar. Next step is to find her. I’d thought only women doing ‘female work’ – such as nursing - were in that war.
• interviewing a stewardess on one of the non-posh ships in that war, Jean Woodcock on the Hull ferry Norland

My work is going to be published gradually. But you can already read two key things that other authors have made available:
• Sally Children, the Assistant Purser on the Canberra, tells her story at http://www.jamescusick.co.uk/2011/02/sallys-story.html
• Canberra’s acting deputy purser Lauraine Mulberry’s diary extracts, in John Johnson-Allen, They Couldn't Have Done it without Us: The Merchant Navy in the Falklands War, Seafarer Books, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2011.

And there are two autobiographical books by women, which don’t focus on gender:
• War artist Linda Kitson’s The Falklands War: A Visual Diary, Mitchell Beazley, London, 1982.
• Nursing Sister Nicci Pugh’s recent book, White Ship, Red Crosses, Melrose Books, Ely, 2010.

And a book that doesn't deal with women at sea but the wives of the combatants who sailed: Jean Carr's Another Story: Women and the Falklands War, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1984.

Lesbian sailors' famous kiss?

Yesterday two women kissed in what may become the most iconic real embrace in women's maritime history. It's been downplayed, it wasn't a show, but it's been photographed for posterity and shared with the world by Associated Press. You can even see it on video.

This real kiss compares interestingly to a spoof one posed by models ten years ago. It's a pastiche of the famous V-J Day 1945 kiss shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt (see this blog, 15.2.2010). To me a decade ago the embrace felt very very far from what could happen in reality. Now it's not.

And that progress merits celebration. I can see why the US navy is downplaying it. There must be anxiety that it shouldn't be fetishised or trivialised. And certainly human beings' right to embrace should indeed be taken for granted. But actually this a significant and serious step forward.

Journalist Brock Vergakis reports that 'A Navy tradition caught up with the repeal of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule on Wednesday [Dec 21] when two women sailors became the first to share the coveted "first kiss" on the pier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.

'Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, Calif.,[left] descended from the USS Oak Hill amphibious landing ship and shared a quick kiss in the rain with her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, [based on the USS Bainbridge, the guided missile destroyer] Gaeta, 23, wore her Navy dress uniform while Snell, 22, wore a black leather jacket, scarf and blue jeans.

'For the historical significance of the kiss, there was little to differentiate it from countless others when a Navy ship pulls into its home port following a deployment. Neither the Navy nor the couple tried to draw attention to what was happening and many onlookers waiting for their loved ones to come off the ship were busy talking among themselves.

'David Bauer, the commanding officer of the USS Oak Hill, said that Gaeta and Snell's kiss would largely be a non-event and the crew's reaction upon learning who was selected to have the first kiss was positive.

'"It's going to happen and the crew's going to enjoy it. We're going to move on and it won't overshadow the great things that this crew has accomplished over the past three months," Bauer said.

'The ship returned to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story following an 80-day deployment to Central America. The crew of more than 300 participated in exercises involving the militaries of Honduras, Guatemala Colombia and Panama as part of Amphibious-Southern Partnership Station 2012.

'Both women are Navy fire controlmen[sic], who maintain and operate weapons systems on ships. They met at training school where they were roommates and have been dating for two years, which they said was difficult under "don't ask, don't tell."

"We did have to hide it a lot in the beginning," Snell said. "A lot of people were not always supportive of it in the beginning, but we can finally be honest about who we are in our relationship, so I'm happy."

'Navy officials said it was the first time on record that a same-sex couple was chosen to kiss first upon a ship's return. Sailors and their loved ones bought $1 raffle tickets for the opportunity. Gaeta said she bought $50 of tickets, a figure that she said pales in comparison to amounts that some other sailors and their loved ones had bought. The money was used to host a Christmas party for the children of sailors.'

'Brock Vergakis, Associated Press, 'Marissa Gaeta And Citlalic Snell, U.S. Naval Petty Officers, Share First Same-Sex Kiss At Ship's Return', http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/marissa-gaeta-citlalic-snell-lesbian-navy-kiss-_n_1163444.html

SEE THE VIDEO of kiss and interview at http://www.usatoday.com/video/raw-video-2-women-kiss-at-navy-ships-return/1340937846001

Gay US navy man wins victory

Google Alerts seem to daily highlight cases of LGBT people in the US navy enjoying new lives now that DADT [the notorious Don't Ask, Don't Tell law] has been overturned. I don't put them all on this blog because the stories are not about my point: lives on ships. And I'm no supporter of the US's military-industrial complex.

But today it seems like especially good news for someone TWICE ousted from his job. Justice has been done. LGBT Weekly reports that 'U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd class Jase Daniels, 29, was reinstated as into active duty as a [Hebrew] linguist after the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster pushed for his return to duty. He was sworn in Monday, saying.

'“Today, I took an oath and affirmed to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. I am humbled as I am reinstated to the job I love and by the enormous support I have received on this momentous day. I look forward to returning to the Defense Language Institute and ultimately, my career in the military.”

'Daniels was discharged in 2005 after coming to terms with his sexual orientation. He sent his commander a letter which confirmed he was gay. Daniels was discharged shortly thereafter, but later received a notice recalling him to serve in Kuwait for one year. He was discharged a second time under DADT [the notorious, now-overturned Don't Ask, Don't Tell law].'

(A longer version of this article was posted at http://lgbtweekly.com/2011/12/12/discharged-u-s-navy-officer-reinstated-after-dismissal-under-defunct-dadt-policy/. It's called 'Discharged U.S. Navy officer reinstated after dismissal under defunct DADT policy' The original appears to be by Ruth Fine of San Diego gay news.

Sexual assault at sea exposed

Dianne Brimble, in dark blue top,climbing aboard the Pacific Sky, on which she was later assaulted at sea and died


New revelations that hundreds of women have been sexually assaulted on cruise ships emerge today in Noosa News.

Elizabeth Binning of the New Zealand Herald, reports that new research, jointly conducted by Canadian Professor Ross Klein and Dr Jill Poulston, Auckland University of Technology head of hospitality, has been passed to the New Zealand Herald.

'Dr Poulston described the findings as "chilling"...The research, which analysed data from FBI reports and three major cruise lines, found there was an unusually high incidence of sexual assaults and unwanted sexual contact on cruise ships:

~ Royal Caribbean International - 18 ships and 451 complaints of sexual assault and harassment between 1998 and 2005.
~ Celebrity Cruises - 9 ships and an average of 16 complaints each year between 1998 and 2002.
~ Carnival Cruise Lines - 92 sex-related incidents in the year to September 2008, including 48 of sexual contact, 40 of sexual assault and three of sexual harassment.

Cases include Australian mother Dianne Brimble who died on a P&O cruise in 2002.Her naked body was found in the cabin of four men. She had overdosed on the date-rape drug Fantasy. (For more details see http://www.cruiselawnews.com/tags/dianne-brimble, which includes a video and photos of the eight 'men of interest' allegedly involved.)

Jill Poulston's research found that 'Attackers were largely members of the crew, while the victims were predominantly female and of varying ages.More than a third of the assaults occurred in passengers' own cabins - often after crew forced their way into the rooms.

'Dr Poulston said the data used mostly involved American and Canadian incidents... the research found "the rate of sex-related incidents on cruise ships is almost 50 per cent higher than the rate of sexual assault on land in Canada".

RCI did, however, show a considerable improvement, dropping its rate of alleged incidents from nearly 112 per 100,000 passengers in 2003 to 45 in 2005.

'Dr Poulston believes one reason assaults are so high on cruise ships is the fact passengers arrive on board and let their guard down. Examples of sexual assaults given in the research varied from a 14-year-old girl who had been kissed and inappropriately touched by a Second Officer through to a woman who was raped in her cabin by a steward.

'A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean International, which also owns Celebrity Cruises, said ... the company carried more than 4.5 million guests and crew members in 2010 and reported thirteen allegations of rape and eleven of sexual assault - not all of which were upheld.

'A spokeswoman for Carnival Australia, which operates P&O Cruises Australia and New Zealand, said claims of sexual assault on board its ships were extremely rare and there was no data to suggest assaults of any kind occurred at a higher rate on its ships than on land.'

The meanings of this story for me are not just that it affirms my findings that ships are highly sexualised places, and reiterates the question 'why?'. Nor that it confirms that abuse happens, especially to women, and that perpetrators get away with it; we already know from the case of Akhona Geveza and the Gorch Foch crew (see earlier entries in this blog). Nor is also that shipping lines are dilatory in admitting the problem and disciplining the wrong do-ers.

It's more that research into gay seafarers shows that, ironically, shipping lines in the past dealt with the problem very well - by employing male seafarers who were not heterosexual, and therefore seldom a threat to women passengers. Some may joke that the obvious solution is simply to employ an all-women crew.

But the real answer is to tackle the pervasive sexism that means women are repeatedly victims of assaults. The over-sexualisation of holiday, over-use of booze and availability of date-rape drugs doesn't help either. As commentators of Dianne's death said, have a lot of fun, but have it responsibly.

For more info on such crimes see: http://www.cruisejunkie.com/

Victory day for LGBT navy personnel in US

Today September 20 2011 marks a big - and long-overdue step - in the struggle for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans rights. The US military's anti-gay “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is repealed today.

Under the 1993 law that bans gay and lesbian personnel from serving openly,14,000 people were discharged - distressed. Many careers were ruined.

Although it's a victory, it's not a complete one. American Veterans for Equal Rights
will still be fighting for the rights of transgender service members. National AVER President Danny Ingram, said

“'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' had nothing to do with transgender issues, so the repeal doesn't do anything for it.“Being transgender is considered a mental illness. Until that changes, the military will not accept or allow transgender people to serve openly.”

See http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/today-in-gay-atlanta/3282-dont-ask-dont-tell-finally-ends-tomorrow

The Pink Paper reports one poignant and personal story that shows the impact the changes will have. 89 year old World War II veteran, Melvin Dwork 'spent decades fighting his discharge status, which involved filing countless requests with the Navy, travelling to Washington, lobbying lawmakers and hiring a law firm to help him.

'As a result of his discharge, he was denied GI benefits to continue his studies as a young man and was denied medical care in his later years, resulting in him being unable to afford a hearing aid.

'His discharge papers [have been] changed from “undesirable” to “honourable”, seventy years after he was expelled from the navy for being gay. [He] was notified last month that he would now be eligible for benefits he had previously been denied, including medical care and a military burial.

'The move is thought to be the first time the Pentagon has taken such a step on behalf of a WWII veteran, since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.'


http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/6069/19/09/2011/navy-changes-gay-sailors-discharge-after-70-years.aspx

Amsterdam Pride: Head of Navy's LGBT forum visits

At Amsterdam's LGBT Pride parade on the Prinsengracht canal on Saturday (Aug 6), uniformed Members of the Netherlands defence forces including Navy joined in for the first time.

At the parade was Lieutenant Commander Mandy McBain, the 51st most influential figure in Britain in the Independent on Sunday's LGBT 'Pink List.'

In 1974 the Netherlands made it legal to be openly gay in the military. The UK was far slower. However, as McBain reports, after the bin was lifted in 2000 big progress is now being made.

As part of the navy for 24 years, she's seen a major turnaround. Ships now carrying Equality and Diversity Advisers and LGBT naval personnel marching every year at London Pride, in uniform.

McBain joined the Navy in 1986 as a Writer and went to Britannia Royal Naval College in 1989. She didn't initially know she was lesbian, and later kept it quiet until the ban was lifted. A Logistics Officer, her roles have included being a member of the Admiralty Interview Board and the spokesperson for European forces in Bosnia.She heads the Navy's LGBT Forum (established 2008).

Mandy McBain photo:Steven Joseph Davidson.See an online interview by g3 magazine. Watch her great talk - we can make it happen - at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLZQGaMqUAw

Hello sailor in Nova Scotia

I've just come back -delighted - from the opening of the Canadian version of Hello Sailor, the exhibition I co-curated for Merseyside Maritime Museum. It's the exciting product of my 40-year old dream to tell the story of this extraordinary subculture.

The expanded exhibition, curated by Dan Conlin at Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic:
• added five panels
• made all the 15 British panels bilingual
• collected stories and objects from five gay seafarers there, including the adapted naval uniform of Elle Noire, who sewed gold lace and sequins on it and cut a low neck.
But we still had the cabin set (see pic of me playing with a feather boa)

It had a great launch on Wed 18 May. The staff trained pink lights on their show cases, arranged the flags outside to include the rainbow coalition flag and to spell out ‘Hello Sailor”, got dressed up in sailor hats, wore pink frocks and fascinators.

We had a drag act with Farrah Moan and Eureka Love singing Abba’s SOS. Then Elle Noire (far right in pic) sang Tina Turner’s Turn Back the Tide. And I had a great time whooping it up there with the drag queens.(That's me, second from right).

If you can't get to the exhibition then you can almost take a virtual tour. Find links to the video and audio footage about the exhibition at http://gov.ns.ca/news/smr/2011-05-18-Hello-Sailor/

The Museum is hoping that now the exhibition is all set for a new life in Canada, it will go on to other museums. The Museum will also be having its first ever float in the Gay Pride parade this summer.

The Minister of Culture, David Wilson, made a statement (very enthusiastic) about us in Parliament (Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature on May 18:

'Nova Scotia can take pride in their unique and diverse history and culture. In communities across the province, museums are working hard to preserve that history and tell our stories. This is a very exciting day for the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

'Today the museum is making history as it holds the North American premiere of the exhibit, Hello Sailor! Gay Life on the Ocean Wave. It has been a long journey for this exhibit to come to Halifax. The journey began with the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersex people over half a century ago.

'Their stories lay hidden for much of the past 60 years until Dr. Jo Stanley and her colleague, Paul Baker, brought them to life in 2003 in the book, Hello Sailor! The Hidden History of Gay Life at Sea. Their book chronicles the experiences of gay crew members on cruise ships and naval vessels that sailed out of England, often stopping in Halifax.

'The book led to the creation of the Hello Sailor! exhibit by the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England in 2006. It ensures the stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersex mariners were brought together for the public to appreciate. Now, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has brought Hello Sailor! to Nova Scotia and added local content to make it even more relevant to Nova Scotians.

'I had the pleasure this morning of attending a preview of the exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and it truly is an impressive experience. The Hello Sailor! exhibit is enhanced by the contribution of Dr. Stanley who is guest curator for the North American debut. Nova Scotia is fortunate to have her experience and knowledge increase our understanding of our maritime heritage.

'This is what our museums do best. They bring forward unique parts of our history that have never been talked about or shown before. They help us to understand how our diverse culture and history make Nova Scotia such an incredible place to live, work, and raise a family....

'The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is one of the top attractions for visitors to our province. Thanks to the imagination, skill and knowledge of the staff at the museum, there is now another reason for people to come to the Halifax waterfront - to see the Hello Sailor! exhibit.

'I urge all members of the House and all Nova Scotians to take advantage of this unique opportunity that Hello Sailor! provides to learn more about our maritime heritage.'


http://nslegislature.ca/index.php/proceedings/hansard/C81/house_11may18/#HPage2666

Protesting about a homophobic article on Hello Sailor!

I've just heard that Scottish Daily Mail has retracted on a nasty slur it made about the Hello Sailor! Exhibition, when it was up in Glasgow in 2009.

The museum's director Dr Christopher Mason protested to the Press Complaints Commission: 'that the newspaper had published an article that inaccurately suggested the Tall Ship Museum in Glasgow had encouraged school children to attend an exhibition on gay merchant seamen in order to receive lessons in gay sex.'

The PCC says 'The complaint was resolved when the newspaper published the following statement:

On 28 August 2009 we published an article under the headline,"Hello sailor! Now children get lessons on the history of gays at sea". Our article reported that schools had been invited to send pupils to an exhibition on the history of gay merchant seamen at The Tall Ship maritime museum in Glasgow. We would like to make it clear that, whilst the museum does encourage school visits, it did not specifically invite any school parties to this particular exhibition; nor did any attend during the time it was being shown.' (06/05/2010)

You can see the PCC announcement at
http://www.pcc.org.uk/news/index.html?article=NjM5OQ==

Outing the Past! Lancashire

Lancashire Record Office hosted its first Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender event – on Saturday, 26th February 2011. The lively, exhibition-packed day in Preston included talks about homosexual history on land by Harry Cocks, Jeff Evans, and Colin Penny as well as many local LGBT people talking – sometimes movingly - about their experiences.

Of course the homophobic policing and trials that so beset gay men - as well as the pride with which they contained to express who they were - were also part of GBT seafarers’ lives, too, when they were ashore. Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967 and at sea until 1993.

I talked about Hello Sailor!, trying to pass on useful tips about using oral history to uncover the past of these exceptional workers.

It was pleasing to know that some attendees said my session was the highlight of the day. When I’m sitting at home creating a powerpoint I never know what the response will be when it’s aired, especially if audiences aren’t specifically interested in the sea.

Lancashire's Record Office have really created a great initative and I hope other record offices will follow suit. Lancashire Record Office may well do a follow-up LGBT event next year.Check out www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk

USS Enterprise

I can't bear to post a picture and give this whole sorry saga any more attention than it already has had. The pathetic anti-gay, semi-pornographic videos circulated on this ship deserve only three comments.
1. It's useful that we now know the kind of immature culture that exists on - probably many - US naval ships. Those videos have been an education in the pervading attitudes and values in the US navy - and implicitly raise questions about how it is in other navies. The publicity has allowed much useful airing of discussions of LGBT matters and gender at sea.
2. How much use is it to sack the commanding officer, really? Yes, it's great that an official stance is being taken against a senior figure who has perpetuated bigoted and unacceptable attitudes.
But isn't it mainly a bit of tokenism to quiet the scandal? Owen Honors' dismissal must become part of a much bigger move to address homophobia and sexism. The goal has to be that women and LGBT people who chose to work at sea can do so without having to face all this hegemonic brutality.
3. The tabloids and their readers have loved it. Much lewd talk about sex! More sales-enhancing conflict! I would like ships to not be newsworthy because sailed by idiots.

Pirate hunters - artistes - do it in saunas

I became interested in pirate hunters because of having researched and written about women pirates. (By the way, my book on them - Bold in her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages - is still in print as a hardback. It's just that the paperback has now gone out of print).

Associated Press has just posted a fascinating article by Katherine Houreld about the pirate hunters now on the Swedish ship Carlskrona,at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hDrcS1YqnperiOOFms1DzuOndyYAD9FUG0EO0.

Yes, there are women aboard: twenty per cent of the crew are women, and they live in non-segregated quarters. But the thing I love is the luxury in which they all live. In between sorties to find Somali pirates they enjoy saunas, massage, and four types of freshly baked bread each day, with wholegrains and syrup (see pic). And among the DVDs they watch is Pirates of the Caribbean. Of course!

On his blog Alexander Martin of La Jolla names this as his all-time favourite article on piracy. He's skipper of the US Force Platoon attached to a MEU that is just about to go pirate hunting to Africa. And he gives a really good picture of his reality.

As part of the Marine Expeditionary Force’s Force Reconnaissance Company he's one of 'a small band of sharply trained professionals who see their trade as an art form. They see their work as special, not themselves.

'The first thing that everyone should know about hunting pirates is that it is not as sexy as it sounds. ...we have been training to kill pirates for an entire year. Which is also not as sexy as it sounds. It's plain hard.'

See his witty blog War & Women (note that order of words) at http://warandwomen.blogspot.com/2010/05/pirate-chronicles-virtue-of-god-country.html

What appeals to me about all this? It's the contrast with silly myths about piracy.

It's not a sexy business for pirates, nor for their hunters.

And modern pirate hunters are not pompous aristocratic gents in frilly shirts and gold braid as in Errol Flynn movies. They're women (and men)workers with high-level skills, who sometimes get to enjoy a bit of pampering ...that feels ironic in the circumstances.

And the odds are that some of these piracy hunters - and the catering workers who suppor them - are LGBT people too, as they were in piracy's golden age 300 years ago. What an enjoyable contrast it all is to the macho and heterosexual myths.