Navy gender guide takes the biscuit
THE Royal Navy has been branded a “laughing stock” for using gingerbread men to tell marine commandos that they might be gay.
A poster, pictured above, of gingerbread men dressed as a sailor and a Royal Marine is being used to raise awareness of “sexual identity” within the Navy.
The campaign suggests that troops can be gay, bisexual or have transgender issues without knowing it.
Hundreds of the posters – featuring “genderbread men” – have appeared in Royal Navy bases, ships and subs and in Naval publications.
The images were produced by Compass, the Navy’s sexual orientation and gender identity network, as part of its PATRICK WILLIAMS Sexual Awareness week. But furious personnel claim the posters will turn the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, famed for their fighting spirit, into figures of fun.
Hundreds have taken to social media to express their anger.
One Navy recruit told the Daily Star Sunday: “I couldn’t care less whether a colleague is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
“It is no longer an issue, but depicting members of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines as genderbread men is insulting. We are meant to be a fighting service. President Putin must be shaking in his boots.”
Former soldier Bob Lawler wrote on Facebook: “We used to be a country whose armed forces were feared the world over. Now people can’t decide whether they want t*ts or a tadger.” Another sailor said: “Can the Navy not see this makes them look like a laughing stock?”
A source at Compass said: “There are a lot of people in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines who are gay or bisexual or are transgender and don’t know it.
“They may be confused and battling with deep, hidden feelings for years. Hopefully our genderbread poster will help them come to terms with the people they really are.”
The poster describes Expression as “the way you present gender through your actions, dress and demeanour and how this is interpreted through gender norms”.
Sexual Orientation is described as “the sexual, romantic, spiritual attraction you feel for others, often based on the gender relationship between you and the people you are attracted to. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as sexual preference.”
The poster describes Biological Sex as “the physical sex characteristic you’re born with and develop, including genitals, body shape, voice pitch, body hair, chromosomes etc”.
And Identity is defined as “how you in your head define your gender, based on how much you align (or don’t align) with what you understand to be the options for gender”.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.