Royal Navy All at Sea on Local Gay Support
Peter Tatchell of LGBT group Outrage! has accused the Royal Navy of hypocrisy for not having any presence at Plymouth Pride.
Peter Tatchell
Speaking yesterday Tatchell said
“The Royal Navy is guilty of rank hypocrisy. It sent 50 sailors to march in the London Pride gay parade in July but has failed to support the gay festival in its hometown of Plymouth. Is the navy ashamed of publicising locally its pro-gay policies?”
Tatchell went on to say that the Royal Navy should be sending four officers to staff a recruitment stall at the event on the 22 August, and that failing to do that is damaging it’s pro-gay credentials. Tatchell said that Plymouth has its own unique needs:
“Plymouth has a long, historic naval tradition and is one of the main ports of the Royal Navy. It is not the most tolerant city in Britain. Parts of the city are quite rough and homophobic.”
“Given the sometimes less enlightened local attitudes, it is much more important that the navy has a presence at Plymouth Pride than at London Pride.”
Mothership Blog spoke to Lieutenant Commander Francesca Woodman at the Plymouth Naval Base to get the Royal Navy’s side of the story. Lt Cdr Woodman said the Plymouth Naval Base fully supported equality and diversity and equal rights for LGBT people and denied that they were hypocritical in not attending Plymouth Pride.
The Royal Navy spokesperson went on to say
“The Royal Navy were the first of the armed forces to allow its members to march in uniform at London Pride four years ago.”
Is the Royal Navy all at sea over local LGBT support?
When pressed as to why the naval base has no presence at its own local pride event she said that it was probably simply a matter of annual leave, August being a month where many personnel take their leave and low staffing levels can mean events like this get overlooked.
Mothership Blog says: We think the Royal Navy’s heart seems to be in the right place in its attitude toward lesbian and gay people. However, overlooking a Pride event on its own doorstep - in an area that badly needs visible LGBT support, is a very unfortunate oversight at the very least.
Let’s hope next year is a very different story and Plymouth Pride is enthusiastically supported by its local Naval Base.
By staff writer
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
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What do you think about the Royal Navy’s absence at Plymouth Pride? Or generally about the way LGBT people are treated by our Forces? Please comment below:
