serving Britain's armed forces
|
|
serving Britain's armed forces |
|
| informing, supporting and sustaining the men and women of Britain's Armed Forces who are unashamedly proud2serve | |
| home :: sitemap :: news :: key
documents :: civil
partnership :: contact :: forum ::
chat :: links :: shopping :: finance :: search ::
guestbook |
|
|
Lieutenant Rolf Kurth, Royal Navy This discussion is based on an interview between the then Lieutenant Rolf Kurth and Sameera Dalvi, Ph.D, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southampton, 3 October 2003. It is an abstract from Multinational Military Units and Homosexual Personnel by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military Lieutenant Rolf Kurth joined the Royal Navy in 1990 and served until 1997 when he was discharged for homosexuality. After nearly four years in civilian life, Kurth was invited to rejoin the navy after the British government lifted its gay ban to comply with a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. Kurth re-enlisted in 2001, and in January 2003 he passed the Principle Warfare Officers` course, graduating in the top of his class. After completing the course, he joined the Royal Navy’s largest amphibious ship. This ship, which for security purposes will be referred to as SHIP A, was deployed in the Gulf throughout the recent war against Iraq. During the latter stages of the conflict, Kurth’s ship took over the command function of a high-profile Royal Navy ship, which will be referred to as SHIP B. While numerous U.S. sailors served onboard SHIP A, Kurth worked closely with a team of six Americans. Kurth’s team, which consisted of two officers, one chief petty officer and three petty officers, joined the ship to help manage relations with American forces. Kurth explained, “In the beginning, SHIP B, was in charge. SHIP B left the Gulf and left SHIP A in charge. When they did, this team transferred from SHIP B to SHIP A. They were a team of liaison people who helped us integrate with the American forces.” Regarding his relationship with the American team, Kurth commented, “I was their direct link to the ship on day-to-day work matters, but not administratively … [I]n actual operations, what we were doing, they would always come directly to me if they needed anything. Because we had that sort of relationship, we talked all the time and I felt that I got along very well with them.” When
asked which members of the US team were aware of his sexual orientation,
Kurth replied that “it is fairly well known around the entire ship … because
I am the only openly gay man on board the ship and at the time there
were well over a thousand people onboard—you can imagine a ship
at sea, doing the same thing over and over, in an environment that is
quite tense but also quite boring, if nothing is happening people talk
and if there is a little bit of gossip, it goes around very quickly.” When
pressed in a subsequent email to explain how he knew that Americans were
aware of his sexual orientation, Kurth wrote, Kurth spoke in positive terms about his interaction with the US officers in the team: “The working relationship with them was great, and I got along very well with them.” When asked if these officers reacted towards him differently from his British colleagues, he responded: “No, they didn’t behave any differently than British colleagues. They were very friendly.” page: Royal
Navy :: 200310-cssmm-kurth.htm |
||
|
||
proud2serve - serving Britain's armed forces |
||