Patrick kept his sexuality secret for his 20-year military career 'I had to deny myself the ability to live a normal life, to meet people, to have relationships, to fall in love, that wasn't something I had available to me." I kept to these rules throughout my teens, twenties and into my thirties. "I evolved a set of rules which were no sex with other service personnel, no boyfriend and no gay friends.
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He said: "I realised that if I wanted to have a career in the navy as well as being gay that I was going to have to work out how to keep two conflicting requirements apart.
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"I slightly naively assumed that that was what was happening with me, except the phase never ended for me."Ĭoming to terms with his sexuality was something Patrick became more aware of as he progressed throughout the early days of his military career. I was aware that I was attracted to men but also in that generation you were brought up to know that perhaps some boys went through a slight phase and would soon grow out of it. He told MyLondon: "My sexuality then was a sort of question mark. When Patrick joined the navy in 1972, he was coming to grips with his sexuality. "I always thought, 'Why do I want to march down the street being proud of my sexuality when straight people don't?' But it's a bit of a different reason this time.Patrick has been involved in LGBTQ+ charity Fighting With Pride since it began in 2020 The parade will follow a route down Oxford and Regent Streets, before filing past Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament and finally dispersing at Victoria Embankment.ĬPO Probee had never attended a pride event before, let alone marched in one. Organisers estimate the entire crowd will swell to 500,000. The gay, lesbian and bisexual naval personnel will join the estimated 50,000 others expected to turn up today. "It was less than 10 years ago that people were sacked and subjected to humiliating cross-examinations and things." Stonewall spokesman Alan Wardle said the navy had undergone an "amazing transformation" since then.
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The armed forces introduced a new code of sexual conduct in 2000. The fight went all the way to the European court, where the case succeeded, forcing the Labour government to lift the ban. At the time there was no Human Rights Act and although judges in the high court and the court of appeal said the ban was not justified, they had no jurisdiction to overturn it. In 1998 the gay rights group Stonewall took up these four cases and mounted a legal challenge to the armed forces' "no gays" policy. Jeanette Smith was an RAF nurse when an anonymous informant told her superiors she was in a lesbian relationship, and Duncan Lustig-Prean was a naval lieutenant commander when he was discharged in 1994 after reporting a blackmail attempt over his sexuality. Others were not so fortunate: father of two Graeme Grady was discharged from the RAF in 1994 after attending a counselling group for married gay men, and John Beckett, a weapons engineering mechanic on the nuclear submarine HMS Valiant, was discharged in 1993 after he told his commanding officer and his chaplain about his gay relationship. Probee says he has never "flaunted" his sexuality, but he was lucky it was not exposed before the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces was lifted in 2000. It might have made me emotionally a stronger person because all that time I was having to privately deal with something other people can do without thinking." "For a lot of years I lost out on that, not being able to love someone openly and freely. "I knew it was something I would have to hide," he said. But unlike other young recruits, he joined knowing his sexuality was a sackable offence. He had been working at a desk job and wanted something more "thrilling".
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Like many young men, he was attracted to military service as an opportunity to learn a trade and travel with it. Leading the group will be Chief Petty Officer Mark Probee, who joined the navy 20 years ago. Next come the disabled marchers, and then the sailors, real ones - represented by a group of about 30 gay, lesbian and bisexual navy personnel wearing their "number one" uniform of formal blues, with medals pinned to breasts. First come the Mayor of London, dignitaries including Sir Ian McKellen and the organisers. Just like a military parade, there will be a marching order.