Carronade The Yankee Sailor Carronade

The Sea is a choosy mistress. She takes the men that come to her and weighs them and measures them. The ones she adores, she keeps; the ones she hates, she destroys. The rest she casts back to land. I count myself among the adored, for I am Her willing Captive.

FLASH TRAFFIC:
I've relocated to a new Yankee Sailor.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Navy May Let Uniformed Officers Join Gay Pride Parade

This is madness:

The Royal Navy signalled today that it might, for the first time, allow uniformed officers to attend a gay pride event.

The second sea lord, Vice Admiral Adrian Johns, is expected to say in a speech at a gay rights conference later today that a "significant number" of lesbian and gay sailors are "very keen" to march in uniform at EuroPride in London.

He will add that the navy is working with gay rights campaigners Stonewall and gay officers on the possibility of having an "overt service presence" at the parade on July 1.

Uniformed members of the police, RAF and army have all previously taken part in UK gay pride festivals, but the navy has yet to follow suit.
Now, gays are allowed to serve openly in the RN, so it's not a good order and discipline issue. But I'm not sure why the RN would want uniformed personnel doing public advocacy of any type on their own.