Yachtswomen's disaster at sea questioned. Why?

Fulava and Appel on USS Ashland, Okinawa, Picture by AP/Koji Ueda


Why are two seawomen’s headline-hitting disaster story being denied and undermined this week?
Anyone interested in gender has to note the deep ideas about women that are being aired.
The US Coastguard, amongst others, is challenging the ‘inconsistencies’ in the account of Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava. The Hawaiian women set off for an 18-day trip to Tahiti.
On their crippled 50-foot sailboat Sea Nymph they were ‘lost’ for three months after a storm this year, and rescued by the US Navy earlier this week.
See the Associated Press story by Caleb Jones in, for example, http://www.theday.com/article/20171031/NWS13/171039892


DISCOUNTING WOMEN'S VERACITY/ABILITY

Novelist Ursula K Le Guin (pictured), years ago, famously pointed out the way that women fiction writers’ achievements in history were undermined.

Nay-sayers contended that ‘she didn’t write it’. Or if she did write it ‘she didn’t write much or it wasn’t that hard or it somehow really doesn’t count.’


Similarly, the disparaging counterclaims to these women’s own account amount to this:
1. They were going the wrong way, by thousands of miles. (Code for the stupid women just got lost, and brought on themselves?)
2. There was no storm at all. Records don’t show any severe weather. (Code for they’re lying or hysterical?)
3. If they had REALLY been in trouble, they were only minutes away from rescue facilities. They could have just switched on their beacon.(Code for they’re lying/hysterical, or they brought in on themselves?)
4. They couldn’t have been in a six-hour attack by 20-to-30 –foot tiger shark attack because sharks don’t behave that way nor grow beyond 17 feet. (Code for they’re lying for sympathy or just hysterical drama queens?)
5. Their subsequent stories are inconsistent. Had they really been sending distress signals for 98 days, fearing they weren’t going to last another day? Or had they not felt themselves to be in immediate danger?. (Code for they’re lying/ hysterical drama queens?)

And it goes on. Had they filed a float plan or not? Had they been reported missing before they were due to arrive? By a mum or a man? Were some harbours really too tiny for them to anchor in?
So, they weren't really brave. They weren't really in trouble. Their problems never existed.They can't even tell a consistent story.

WHERE DOES THE PROBLEM LIE?

Whatever the truth, the commentators are contesting the women’s story. Why? Is it about discounting women’s bravery?
Or alternatively, why would the women have fabricated such a story?

'Lesbian ship' US navy to set off on Friday

NASA astronaut Sally Ride in the interior of the Challenger space shuttle, 1984. Photo by Space Frontiers/Getty Images)

On Friday a ship named after a pioneering Dr Sally Ride (1951-2012), the first US woman astronaut, will set forth. Naming the ship after her is in the same tradition as naming a vessel after civil rights leader Harvey Milk, earlier this year. Will it be as controversial?

And the sailing forth of the R/V Sally Ride raises the question of who would we in the UK choose? So many LGBTQI pioneers would be appalled at being associated with the military. I can't ever see there being an HMS Peter Tatchell or HMS Sue Sanders. What about you?

And anyway UK naval ships are named after previous UK naval ships, as well referring to concepts such as Illustrious, Invincible. Yes, they're about spin, but it's military-related spin. So I wonder if there ever could one called the Justice, the Diversity, the Out& Proud.

READ MORE ABOUT IT
The text below is a doctored lift from this article, US Navy Names Another Ship After An LGBT Pioneer, by Cody Gohl 11/3/2016: http://www.newnownext.com/us-navy-sally-ride-ship/11/2016/ I've just added some pictures.

The United States Navy will commission a ship Friday named for Sally Ride, the late lesbian astronaut who in 1983 became the first American woman in space on the STS-7 mission.

Ride, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2012, was not publicly out during her lifetime, but had been in a relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy for over two decades.

At the Sally Ride Research Vessel christening in Annacortes, WA were (left to right) Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla; Tam O’Shaughnessy, co-founder and current CEO of Sally Ride Science; Margaret Leinen, Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences; and Walter Munk, renowned Scripps Insitution of Oceaongraphy scientist.

“I think she’d be thrilled,” O’Shaughnessy told The San Diego Union-Tribune, regarding the R/V Sally Ride. “There are so many connections — Scripps and being female and having the first academic research vessel being named after a woman. That’s just keeping with what she was all about her whole life.”

“She probably would want to sign up for an expedition,” she added.

SEE THE VID:

https://youtu.be/YgZ_LLnWsPU?list=PLHy4NEP75tDm2n88TdyvPzStNZ3aCAzQC

The R/V Sally Ride (pictured here under construction) is a new vessel classified as an AGOR ship, or one that will be used for auxiliary general oceanographic research. These types of ships are generally named after trailblazing explorers—this marks the first time one has been named after a woman.

Owned by the Navy but operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the vessel will gather research on the planet’s oceans in order to combat ecological decay. It will set off Friday for its first voyage to investigate plate tectonics.

Sally Ride meeting President Obama. She was a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Photo credit: Whitehouse.gov

US sailor gives surprise birth an aircraft carrier

This breaking news story is heading straight for that boring category from ten years or more ago: 'OMG,! See what happens when you put lady sailors on warships! The stork comes along and upsets operations. Whatever next! Layette-knitting sessions by the torpedo launchers? Regulation issue baby-milk expressing pumps on the bridge? Told you women would only lead to trouble!'

This is the story as CNN tells it: 'Surprise! US Navy sailor unexpectedly gives birth on aircraft carrier', by Barbara Starr and Tom Kludt, September 14, 2016. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/13/politics/us-sailor-birth-at-sea-persian-gulf/

"A sailor who hadn't previously disclosed her pregnancy gave birth recently aboard an aircraft carrier currently involved in military operations against ISIS, the Navy has confirmed."

'Just Tummy pain?'
"A Navy spokesman said the sailor had complained of abdominal pains and was checked into the medical department on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was there where she later gave birth to a seven-pound girl.

.
"Both the baby girl and her mother "are healthy and are doing well," according to Cmdr. Bill Urban of the US Naval Forces Central Command.
"As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the US Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and well-being of the baby and the mother," Urban said.
The woman and child were flown to Bahrain by helicopter with a medical escort, where they are receiving follow-up care at a shore-based hospital."

In the middle of fight against ISIS
"The unexpected birth came at a tense time aboard the ship. The Eisenhower was in the Persian Gulf in support of US-led air campaign against the ISIS.
Urban said that Navy policy allows expectant mothers to "remain onboard a ship up to the 20th week of pregnancy and only if the time for medical evacuation to an emergency treatment facility is less than six hours." But the Navy was unaware of this particular pregnancy, he added.
"While it would have been preferred to send her to her homeport earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our sailor and the newest member of our Navy family," Urban said. "We are working a plan to move them to a shore-based hospital as soon as possible.""

Diapers by chopper
Other US sources reporting the event say the Navy flew out nappies, formula (processed milk) and an incubator for the baby before the petty officer and her daughter were taken by chopper to a Bahrain hospital.

Operation Inherent Resolve, which the Eisenhower has been supporting, has been making air strikes from the Arabian Gulf since 22 July. In all 3,200 people are aboard this elderly nuclear-powered carrier, which carries 90 aircraft.

The stork's been before
Three other US women have relatively recently given birth on naval premises at sea:
~ 2003: A Marine on USS Boxer,Persian Gulf
~ 1994: a sailor on USS Yellowstone (see pic) in Gaeta, Italy
~ 1989: a sailor on USS Yellowstone at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

My comment:
The story, of course, indicates something tragic: that education systems have truly failed women if they don't know when they are pregnant. And if they do know, but have to hide that knowledge - perhaps even for themselves - then changes are needed in naval ways of operating in regards to that should-be simple and important matter: women's reproductivity.

After that quayside kiss ...

In December 2011 this became the most famous same-sex quayside kiss. (See this blog, http://genderedseas.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/lesbian-sailors-famous-kiss.html).
In part the greeting celebrated the lifting of the US military's much criticised Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
The picture became so famous that the couple were invited to San Diego Pride and much featured in the New York media. But they 'didn't want to be poster children for a movement.'

REVISITING
Now a journalist has revisited the couple: former Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta and Lali Snell.
Courtney Mabeus of the Virginian-Pilot has today published this article, 'Whatever happened to couple who had Navy's 1st gay homecoming kiss? The full version can be read here: http://okinawa.stripes.com/news/whatever-happened-couple-who-had-navys-1st-gay-homecoming-kiss

Snell said that after the picture was published they 'got some hate mail along with some letters of support, calling the couple inspirational and courageous ... at a visit to a Target store in Virginia Beach ... a family recognized the couple and shook their hands. "It's nice having that positive reinforcement ... It reminds you there's still kindness in the world," she told Courtney.

LEAVING THE NAVY
Both women have left the navy - and each other. It's mainly because of long deployments apart - which are a key problem in almost every naval relationship. They had only a week together in 2011.
Lali said the photo 'added pressure ... "I almost felt we were going to let people down."' They parted in summer 2012.
Marissa is now planning to become a nurse. Lali is studying to become a forensic pathologist. She's engaged to a a male, a former sailor; they have a three-year-old son.

IMPORTANT PHOTO IN LGBT & NAVAL HISTORY
Both women are still in touch and 'speak of each other fondly.... Neither regret that first kiss.
'"I think it was such a big moment in, you know, history for the Navy and for the LGBT community so, I'm OK with it,"' Lali affirmed.'

©2016 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
Visit The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) at pilotonline.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Fleet Week - the sexualised version in New York

‘Fleet Week is NYC's official gay week-long holiday. It's like Passover for gays.’

(Fleet Week, 2005)

It was only when the Huffington Post asked me to speak about the LGBTI people and New York’s Fleet Week, yesterday, that I came across this phenomenon that must fascinate all anthropologists and anyone into maritime culture.
This spectacle, from 20-26 May 2015, is designed to publicise an aspect of a nation’s military might. But it’s been appropriated as a festival of, well, lusting. Queer lusting. And women’s heterosexual lusting. Hello indeed, sailors!

OFFICIALLY
Officially, Fleet Week number 27 in New York now means a ‘time-honored celebration of the sea services, and an unparalleled opportunity for the citizens of New York and the surrounding tri-state area to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as witness firsthand the latest capabilities of today's maritime services …
‘In addition to public visitation of participating ships and military band concerts, there will be numerous exhibits and aviation demonstrations throughout the week showcasing the latest technology of the maritime services and the skilled expertise of our dedicated service members.’


UNOFFICIALLY
Lascivious drooling over anything in a lanyard and bellbottoms on the unruly streets is not something historian Jan Jan Rüger could have guessed would follow on from the Victorian ‘naval theatre’ of our patriotic, grey-hull-focused Fleet Reviews, which he explored in The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007.

Unofficially, NYC’s Fleet Week it means a time when anyone who fancies male sailors (or rather, fancies the stereotypical idea of them as butch and bendable icons) dolls themselves up, takes plenty of money to buy drinks for their quarry, and cruises ports in search of the beefcake of their dreams.
I'm not sure if women will be using the events for netting women sailors. That’s a hidden story, as yet.
Fetishised gay male re-readings of events meant in 2012, for example,that the chance to view ‘The gayest military movie of all time’, Top Gun, on the warship USS Intrepid was full of amorous promise for uniform fetishists and "Masc bi frat bros".
In 2013 traders, including pink proprietors,lost an estimated $20 when the Week was cancelled as too costly.

NABBING ANY SAILOR
Around 1,500 sailors will arrive in NYC, be feted like movie stars, and become the besieged objects of landlubbers’ desire. No doubt some will take advantage and some will be taken advantage of. And yes, civilians will certainly learn more about the Navy, but not in the way the spin-doctors want.
Nabbing a Fleet-Week-sailor makes the game clear in its online guide for women:
‘This is not the man you're going to marry, just a fun little fling. He's a knight that comes in his own shining armor. In fact, that all-white get-up is so shining, it's often blinding, making one sailor hard to tell from the next. And that's fine. You don't need to be picky. Just about any sailor will do. Here's how you can take advantage of one of the 3,000 seamen who arrived in town today.’ (http://gawker.com/5548501/nabbing-a-fleet-week-sailor-a-how-to-guide)
More sensibly it warns that although sailors will be doing ‘outreachy’ public relations stunts, off duty they will be wanting booze (US ships are strictly dry), privacy, and ‘a week of fun and freedom.’ Use your condoms.
‘Be a Lady: We hate to break it to the gay guys, but most of the sailors are going to be of the heterosexual persuasion.… the majority will be hunting for lady tail (and for those that are heteroflexible, they've been beating off with bunk mates for months, so it's time to flex their hetero muscles).’



RELATIONSHIP?
Personally, I'm all for people being valued for all the complex human beings they really are, not objectified. Any other way of connecting seems reductive and bound to lead to misery if people are seeking honest relationships. But that’s a feminist woman’s perspective, whereas this publicity is all about carnivalesque, one-off friskiness.
It’s lite. And as Tina Turner sang ‘What’s love got to do with it?’

Image from Jordan Sternberg’s 2012 A Fleet Week Fun Guide for the Gay Sailor,
http://www.papermag.com/2012/05/hey_sailor_a_fleet_week_fun_gu.php


DO TELL? OR DO BE CIRCUMSPECT?
Fleet Week in the US is particularly important and festive since the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law was repealed in 2012. LGBTI rights in the military are now better recognised.
Much queer publicity plays on this: ‘Do Ask, Do Tell’ consumers are urged; ‘Do ask, do tell’ cocktails are on offer. In turn sailors are exhorted ‘Come out for Fleet Week’.
If only it were that simple. If only expressions of sexualities, especially marginalised ones, didn’t have complex repercussions for seafarers.

Black woman becomes deputy head of US Navy

Getting respect and promotion in masculine institutions is hard work if you're a woman, and a black woman at that. But on Friday Michelle Janine Howard was promoted to deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces command in Norfolk on Friday. She's the first black woman to attain a three-star rank in the US's entire armed forces.

Born in 1960 and educated at Annapolis Naval Institute (in only the third intake of women, in 1978) she has been supported in realising a seemingly impossible ambition she had aged twelve by an ex-Marine husband, her Air Force Master Sergeant father, and British-born mother.

“When you look at where society was at the time, this was before there was even a woman on the Supreme Court, before Sally Ride was an astronaut, and it was also only five or six years after we became an all volunteer force in the military, so our society was still going through a lot of changes.”

“In the 1980s when the Navy opened the logistics ships to women, that was huge, because it allowed a lot of opportunities for women to serve at sea. Then it was just a few years later that we were engaged in Operation Desert Storm. So even though women weren’t serving on warships, women were still serving in a combat arena, and that started a national conversation."

Vice Admiral Howard has been a first before. In 1999 she became the first African-American woman to command a Navy warship at sea, USS Rushmore.

She was the first woman graduate of that academy to become a rear admiral, in 2009. That year she was also the first black woman to command an expeditionary strike group at sea.

Within a week of assuming command of Expeditionary Strike Group Two, whose job was to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, she led the the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips. He was commanding officer of the MV Maersk Alabama, which had been attacked by Somali pirates.


See: History maker: Aurora native first black woman to be 3-star admiral - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_21395842#ixzz24dDpWG3C
AND
http://themoderatevoice.com/157196/sailor-becomes-first-black-female-to-earn-three-star-rank/

Attempted rape of US submariner - officer sacked

Today's breaking news from the US is that, following eight months of anti-gay bullying (hazing) and attempted rape of sailor on the USS Florida, a Georgia-based nuclear submarine, a US Naval officer was sacked.

Associated Press has a leaked investigative report. It reveals that the US Navy relieved Charles Berry as "chief of the boat” due to dereliction of duty, in March. The investigators found that Berry was not involved in the hazing, but had knowledge of it and failed to inform his chain of command.

The story is published today at http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/06/anti-gay-hazing-attempted-rape-of-sailor-leads-to-firing-of-top-navy-officer/

LGBTQ Nation explains that 'Aboard a submarine, the chief of the boat advises the commanding officer of issues involving enlisted sailors.

'The hazing was directed at a sailor who reported that another man pulled a knife and tried to rape him in the port at Diego Garcia.'

Diego Garcia is one of the joint UK-US military facilities, in the Chagos Islands, which are part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. We (the UK) evicted Chagossians in the early 1970s to allow the US establish this military base the largest island.

The victim can't be named, but 'According to the report, the victim was generally well-liked on the ship.'

This is the bit I find heart-breaking - not least because I know harassed women and black people who've tried the same strategy: Grit your teeth and wait it out, act pleasant. The submariner 'endured the anti-gay torment for months because he thought it would eventually stop'

It didn't.

It didn't because bullying becomes systemic and expressive of many complex and buried feelings. This collective aggression is a focus of many personal grievances and insecurities, including, perhaps, the crew's feelings about how they themselves are respected or not by the US Navy. It's got to be partly a product of how they are trained to hate 'the enemy' Other.

'Among other things, this submariner was called a derogatory term for a gay person and referred to as Brokeback, a reference to the gay-themed movie Brokeback Mountain. In addition, someone posted a drawing of a stick figure being sexually assaulted.

'Before a group training session on the repeal of the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the sailor was subjected to comments about coming out of the closet...

'Other sailors asked when they could meet his boyfriend. They asked whether his boyfriend was Filipino, the nationality of the person he said tried to rape him.

'After eight months of harassment in 2011, the sailor eventually wrote a note saying he had suicidal thoughts ... that he could snap and hurt himself or someone else.

'The report says there was a culture of hazing and sexual harassment aboard the submarine...There was inadequate knowledge about the Navy’s policies against it to stop the behavior before the sailor reached that point.'

Among the posts responding to this article are:
# one that hopes that this revelation will now mean women's complaints about being harassed will be taken more seriously
# John D Cox, a veteran who'd been bullied in the Vietnam era who says 'Please see link: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123140293 for information regarding sexual assaults according to the Dept of Defense.
'A higher percentage of females in the military admit to sexual assaults than males. However, due to the much greater numbers of males in the US military when compared to females, many, many more males are sexually assaulted in the American military.
'It is mostly an invisible fact which most Americans don't want to know. And yet, supposedly, "We Support The Troops."
'I didn't report the ... harassment and...assault on me, nor the accompanying depression and my suicidal thinking because I knew ... the US Army would blame me for the incidents which occurred back during the Vietnam War Era...the 1st sergeant of my company not only knew of the sexual and physical assaults on my person, he also participated. It's taken years of intense psychotherapy... and I know that, regardless, I'll never be "cured." '
# Debbie Brady: 'As a Vietnam era Navy veteran, I am glad to see justice in this harassment case. As a transgendered woman I know the level of harassment that can occur on board a Navy ship.'

The point is not to make a scapegoat out of Berry. It's to ensure no-one bullies, and that at all officer ensure people, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or race, can get on with their job in relative peace.

That's especially important on a sea-going vessel, which is also a worker's accommodation. Submarines and ships are not places that victims can escape from at night and do some recuperating at home. This is home'.

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.

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

Gay marine reveals fight for rights

Being in North America last week I heard lots of stories about LGBT seafarers that are not necessarily so well known here in the UK. One of the most talked about is the new (ish) book by gay US Marine Justin Crockett Elzie, the first Marine to be discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (which was repealed in Dec 2010).

“PLAYING BY THE RULES” A Marine’s True Story was published by Queer Mojo (A Rebel Satori Imprint),2010. It's acclaimed as a crucial expose of homophobia and the fight for LGBT rights.

Elzie didn't want to be an activist. But he wanted to stay in the Marines and so he challenged his discharge. He won, was re-instated and served four more years, openly gay, before retiring in 1997.

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.

Celebrating women in command at sea

Two women have just got leading jobs at sea. I wish we could say "So what?"
But actually it is still a remarkable feat. So congratulations not only to to Johanna Kwedhi (lower pic)and Nora W Tyson (top pic) themselves, but those who've been brave enough to let them succeed, and to those who've supported them.

US NAVY
The unease that's being expressed on the web about Rear Adm. Tyson's appointment shows just how hard a fight it still is for women in power on ships to have their expertise recognised. See http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/69719858/m/9670032652001

31 years after joining the US Navy,last Thursday(Aug 5)Nora W Tyson assumed command of Carrier Strike Group Two. The strike group consists of aircraft carrier George W Bush, four guided-missile cruisers; Destroyer Squadron 22, which includes six guided-missile destroyers and two frigates, and Carrier Air Wing 8, with eight squadrons of aircraft.

Tyson said "As far as the trailblazing piece, I understand I am the first woman on the job," she said. "But I'm a professional just like my fellow officers are, and my fellow strike group commanders."

Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, said her appointment should send a signal "that there is no limit as to what you can do."

I myself feel 'If only such a claim were true.' And while it's good to see women progress, politically I regret that she is working for such a belligerent country.

NAMIBIA FISHING
By contrast, Johanna Kwedhi is Namibia's first female trawler captain, in charge of 23 crew. See a video of her at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10893469.

The BBC reports: "Johanna captains the Kanus, one of the largest trawlers operating from Luderitz Harbour... It's her responsibility not only to navigate a coastline infamous for shipwrecks, but to bring in a profitable catch.

Trained by the Namibian Fisheries Institute, she was appointed skipper after serving for eight years as an officer and chief mate under a Spanish captain. Her company now has four more women doing similar training.

"This is a man's world," says Bosun Evalisto Shipo. "Since the beginning, it's been a man's world. If your leadership is not appropriate for the crew, you will not earn their respect."

And Captain Kwedhi has done so - while breaking another barrier too. "We have never seen a black person in charge of a ship," says Evalisto Shipo. "It has always been a Spanish person actually."

What a competent woman she must be, to succeed despite such odds, as well as being the single parent of a 14-month-old son, Innocent.