An aspiring sailor left the Royal Navy after he was subjected to casual homophobia day in and day out.
William Gill trained in the Royal Navy in 1991 for four months at HMS Raleigh, Cornwall, where he was told that 'homosexuals were dirty b*****s.'
The 56-year-old told the ECHO he knew he always wanted to join the Navy: “I had a grandfather who told me stories about a merchant sailor who was an adventurer on the high seas’ as I saw it. I grew up with the idea of joining the royal navy.”
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At the age of 26, Will visited a recruitment site in St Helens and was “scooped up instantly” by the Royal Navy thanks to having the desired qualifications under his belt.
Will knew at this time of his life that he was gay but still hadn’t came out to friends or family.
He wanted to try to separate his job from his sexuality so despite knowing it was illegal, he signed up anyway.
But within the first week of training, separating the two was proving harder than he was anticipating.
He said: “I heard slurs straight away from people, even officers were coming out with slurs in conversation.
“You could leave after the first week but I decided to let it ride. The next opportunity for you to leave though wasn’t until three months later, so I thought I would do my full basic training and not overreact in the first week.
“But after another two weeks I quickly realised what the Royal Navy was about back then.”
Will explained that as part of the training you had to attend education classes that ranged from the subjects of health and disease to sex education and drugs.
During one class, Will claims that an officer stood in front of the class and said the following: “Listen up you lot, fortunately, homosexuality is still a criminal offence in the Royal Navy so if any of you dirty b*****s in here have got any ideas you can forget about it right now and if you do we’ll kick you out.”
Will heard this type of homophobia on a daily basis and had to put up with it for another nine weeks before he had the opportunity to leave.
Will recalled how he was fortunate compared to others thanks to his physical appearance.
He said: “I’m a big lad, I’m 6 ft. and before I went to the Navy, I went to the gym, I worked out, I put on a bit of weight and muscle. When you think about bullies, they pick on the weakest and others in my training group were picked on, even though they were straight, for being gay.”
Reportedly, other sailors, who didn’t realise how intense the training would be, knew that homosexuality was frowned upon so much that they deliberately got caught kissing knowing they would get thrown out.
Speaking more about when they were caught, Will said: “What they didn’t realise is that when you come out as gay, a whole can of worms is opened.
“No one knew anything about the incident until one morning, out of character, we were marched into a shed and with several classes all stood there to attention, the two lads were at the front.
“The officer then read out their charges, names, training branch and what they were guilty of. They were then given 12 weeks in prison and then thrown out.”
Will did however say that he understands those attitudes and views were typical of society at that time and it wasn't just the Royal Navy.
A Royal Navy Spokesperson added: "We are proud of LGBT+ Service personnel and value their current and historic contributions to our Armed Forces.
"It will always remain deeply regrettable that personnel were historically discriminated against because of their sexuality. It was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now. We do not tolerate any form of bullying, harassment and discrimination within Defence.
"We take the wellbeing of all those who have served extremely seriously and have a range of support mechanisms in place for our veterans."
Will eventually came out at 29-years-old, three years after he left the Navy.
After leaving he went onto find employment as a recruitment consultant but says looking back with hindsight if the navy operated then the way it does now against homophobia he would have stuck it out.
Will's experience comes after the government launched a review into the impact of the pre-2000 ban on homosexual personnel in the military.
The independent review aims to "provide the opportunity for the government to better understand the lived experience of LGBT veterans who served prior to 2000, including how being discharged from the military because of their sexuality affects their life."
They say the information and experiences gathered will be used to better tailor the government's support to the community.
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