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Navy’s sea change on sexuality

This article is abstracted from the June 2005 edition of Focus magazine, the in-house MOD staff publication.

The sound of feet being dragged was loud when the Forces’ ban on homosexuals was lifted. But five years on, the Senior Service is actively engaging the gay community. Campaigning gay naval officer Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones told Lorraine McBride that this is more than welcome.

STEREOTYPES, it would seem, are very dangerous.“I don’t want to come across as a Peter Tatchell in uniform,” warned the man who is probably the Services’ most senior gay officer. “But I’m aware that I probably will.” If he sounds a tad nervy, who could blame him? Sixteen years ago, Craig Jones, then 20, joined the Navy. But he was aware that he had to keep a secret at all costs. Coming out would shatter his dream. In 2000, Geoff Hoon overturned the ban on gay servicemen and women in the Armed Forces. Since then, Craig has poured his efforts, time and energy into making the Navy a place where gay men and women are totally at home. It’s an inspirational story of how a government institution can be dragged into the 21st century and Craig, a Principal Warfare Officer, talks movingly about how he wants to break the taboo surrounding gays.

“I’m the type to aspire to command a ship,” he says. “I’m not the ship’s hairdresser. I was chatting to a civilian the other day who thought all our gay men and women were probably stewards.“ Hardly,” he says. He stresses that he does not have any official role in Navy or MOD diversity policy, but he is passionately involved in the Royal Naval Sexual Orientation Working Group, a mechanism for officers and ratings to meet up over a few beers, offering mutual support and friendship. The group is, he says,“ very valuable to people who could otherwise feel quite isolated. There is that “I’m the only gay in the village feeling,” which can quite easily happen in a warship at sea.”

The group know about fear, loneliness, rejection and the stigma of being gay and Craig passes their concerns along with their aspirations on to Commander Tim Kingsbury, the Navy’s Diversity and Equality officer. Five years after the landmark decision (memorably marked in Focus with the eyebrow-raising headline“ it’s OK to be gay”) the big question remains whether the Forces are doing more than pay lip service to the idea that sexuality is irrelevant. Are they actually encouraging recruitment among the gay community? There is evidence that the Navy is doing just that, signing up to the campaigning group Stonewall’s “diversity champions” employers scheme.

“ Joining Stonewall’s Diversity Scheme is all about making a clear commitment to the fact that not only are we happy with gay men and women serving, we’re actually very pleased about it,” explains Craig. He talks, however, of a huge and still untapped pool of talent, and is convinced that it’s a market that, more often than not in the past, we were actively discouraged from exploiting. Any day now, he expects to hear whether the Navy has the green light to parade a float in the next Pride event. This, says Craig, will be another shining example of how times are changing.“ The Royal Navy’s partnership with Stonewall is a really brave move. I think it makes the Service stand out as an organisation that’s really prepared to put its money where its mouth is.”

Despite the prejudice that he suffered personally as a young sailor, he is not without respect for his heterosexual colleagues, for whom he believes that the gay issue has been rather more serious. At sea, sailors live cheek by jowl and you sense life could be more difficult than the army or air force. “But,” says Craig, “in most cases, when gay men and women have come out, the ship’s companies have responded extremely well.” Inevitably, there has been heartache but there have been wonderful triumphs.

When Craig joined HMS Fearless, he waited four weeks before he told anyone, as he wanted people to like him for himself. “ Ships are great,” he says with a flash of humour. “You can get something around a
ship in about three-and-a half minutes if it’s worth listening to. And at least I’ve never had to introduce myself.” Craig’s salvation was his stoic bravery and to his surprise and delight, he found allies in the Royal Marines who accepted him for what he was. That, however, is the bright side. There are still people who are worried about coming out, and this worries Craig.“ Being in the closet is a wearying and divisive experience. We still need clear signals that people will be valued and supported, particularlyi f they have a problem.I think there’s also potential for social exclusion because gay people are, by definition, different. It’s all about looking after people.“ I’m quite sure that the army and RAF will be looking very closely at our experiences. We’re market leaders and I’m very proud of the Service for achieving that. We’ve paid our thousand pounds to Stonewall and we’re being looked after. Now I’m absolutely convinced that we’ll get more high quality men and women through the door.”

On 22 December, the civil partnerships register will make gay partnerships recognised in law, and this will mean same sex Service personnel will gain full pension rights and gay couples will be eligible for married quarters. Craig and his partner Adam plan to “tie the knot” but will they apply for married quarters? He responds with a smile: “We could but we have our own home in Brighton and my curtains are far better than anything in a married quarter.” He has reason to smile. This principled and campaigning Naval officer sees what was once a glimmer of hope brightening into a beam that illuminates the future for many previously victimised men and women. What is more, the way ahead may also be brighter for Navy recruiters.

For more information visit www.stonewall.org.

I’m not the only gay on the warship

UP UNTIL the mid-70s gay servicemen and women were widely ignored and there was an unspoken understanding that it would remain that way. But by the mid-80s, gays were being actively discriminated against. In some cases, they were sent to detention, and their careers invariably ended overnight.
The ban condemned servicemen and women to a lonely life. Gays and lesbians guarded the secret of their sexuality nervously, worried about the threat of blackmail or being “outed” by bitter colleagues or ex-lovers. As a young officer Craig would often sit in the wardroom and listen to bigoted colleagues talking ignorantly about the gay community.“ Anything to do with being gay prior to 2000 was a real taboo,” he
says. “All the attitudes were negative.” Then, in 1999, a group of four servicemen led by Lieutenant
Commander Duncan Prean took the government to the European Court of Human Rights. They paid a high price.“ We removed them from the Service, took their careers away and– because it’s very difficult to explain why they were suddenly no longer in the Services – outed them to their family and friends.
By the time the rules were changed, it was too late for them to rejoin.” Craig watched the
Services wrangling with one of the most difficult issues in their history. When, in January 2000,
Geoff Hoon announced to a hushed Commons, the decision to overturn the ban, the Defence Secretary sounded anxious to appease dinosaur admirals who reportedly threatened to resign. Hoon said: “There are those who would prefer to continue to exclude homosexuals. However the law is the law and we
cannot pick and choose the decisions which we wish to implement.” The previous day, Craig’s Commanding Officer had gathered his officers aboard HMS Fearless and made clear that the new policy was unwelcome. Craig listened, seething with anger, and vowed not to attend a repeat performance
when the captain would address the ship’s entire crew. He went to see his boss. “I told him that before he stepped out onto the flight deck he needed to bear in mind the fact that his third-in-command was
gay. And I was not the only gay man out of 500 in the ship’s company.“ He was quite shocked and possibly embarrassed. It was one of those defining moments. I probably had a face like thunder and
an air of fire about me, so he said very, very little.” It probably took even more bravery to come out in public aboard Fearless. But three weeks after he revealed he was gay, Craig and his partner Adam attended their first function on the warship as a couple. Craig does not mind the limelight, but he
winced when shown a photo of himself with Adam in The Times. The caption read: “Hello sailor! It’s the new naval wife”.“ Hard work,” he sighs.