Imagine you are flying with someone and you can’t say the letter e, because if it accidentally slips out in conversation, you might be ridiculed, ostracized by your peers, and it could potentially damage your career. Chances are you’d be so concerned about the things you say that you don’t put your full attention on flying.
According to Steve Walker, president of the National Gay Pilots Association, this scenario is similar to what gay pilots go through every day.
“Gays are an invisible minority,” said Walker, a retired captain from Alaska Airlines. “Aviation has a very military, very white, very male culture. It is still okay to make jokes about gay people, and without specific support from your immediate supervisor, be it the owner of the FBO or the chief pilot, gay pilots feel very alone and will shut down.”
This feeling of isolation led to the formation of the National Gay Pilots Association about 20 years ago when a couple of pilots on the East Coast discovered that the other one was gay. “They felt a strong camaraderie because they felt very much in the minority at that time,” he said.
Since then the organization has grown to about 600 members, with chapters all over the country.
Members range from 19-year-old student pilots to 75-year-old pilots who have their own Boeing 727s “and everything in between,” Walker said.
The organization has grown from a social group to a networking organization that also provides scholarships to men and women.
“The networking is critical,” said Walker, “We have a looming pilot shortage, so networking is key. You don’t have to be gay to be part of the organization, but you need to be supportive of the lesbian and gay community.”
The association has had a booth at AirVenture to provide information. For the most part, the reaction is positive, said Walker.
“Last year we had a Civil Air Patrol group that came by the booth. Their commander wanted to show the cadets diversity in aviation,” he said, adding there have also been some people who come to the booth and stand in judgment, making comments like “you people shouldn’t be here.”
Walker noted that the association is about education, not confrontation. The emphasis is on helping advance aviation and facilitating a cultural change where it is not okay to use gay slurs.
“The culture change is similar to the change that took place when women and people of color began to appear on flight decks,” he said, noting that members of these “visible” minorities, unlike gay pilots, are “protected by law.”
The anti-gay attitude can begin at the very start of someone’s aviation experience, he said. “For example, if you are my CFI and this is my first flight and you make a gesture or off-hand comment, and I am not comfortable being out, I am going to shut down and be in a defensive mode, so it will be about guarding myself and not really learning.”
In a worst case scenario, the student may get so offended that he or she decides not to become a pilot. “And we are potentially losing out on good people,” said Walker.
It gets better
Several members of the association, from corporate pilots to airline pilots to CFIs, recently participated in a video for It Gets Better, a project designed to let gay teens who feel isolated or are being bullied know that things will get better.
For more information: NGPA.org
This could have gone on forever without another nauseating piece on homosexuals and how they continue to infect the world with destructive behavior! The entire article is a ‘puff’ piece and another sell out to an ugly, activist, demographic.
All the other 8 BILLION people on this planet may accept this conduct – but I am one person who will never accept it, tolerate it, condone it…or, much less, promote it!
The new social status and the deterioration of morals, conduct and principles is not …’just fine’ with me. I don’t care if a person can fly an airplane and is a homosexual – in private – but do not tell me all about it…kiss your boyfriend in public and attempt to foist this ‘crap’ on the rest of us!
It’s not OK to live a homosexual lifestyle. Â
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They say “every problem (if there is one) has a solution” – For all those who feel “disadvantaged”, how about a ONE SIZE FITS ALL NATIONAL ORGANIZATION: labled, “Poor Me”! And of course government funded as long as there’s an “ASS” (Demograt) in the White (Castle) house!
Seriously Meg? What a waste of space. I’m fat. It’s obvious. I don’t spend my time walking around worrying about how other people feel about that. Gays need to stop whining and trying to leverage their “special” status to gain sympathy. And how often does being gay come up while flying, that you have to worry about it? I have gay friends who don’t go overboard to advertise their gayness, and most people never notice. My friend Ethan understands this. He dresses normal, he speaks normally, and he will occasionally refer to “my partner Bill” or “Bill and I”, and leave it at that. It’s not the homosexuality that most people object to, it’s the in-your-face, see me and like it attitude, like a fat guy in a Speedo, that people find offensive (excepting a minority of dimwits).
I’m very disappointed in GAN, I think there must be much more relevant “news” that could be reported on.
What’s this crap doing in the aviation news? My uncle is into the homosexual thing and it has ruined his life and all those arround him. It has killed many of his friends. Why are we advertising something that makes people unhappy and shortens their life more than smoking. FLYING HAS NOTING TO DO WITH THE WAY PEOPLE THINK THEY WANT TO HAVE FREAK OF NATURE SEX!!!!!!!!! Keep this nasty stuff off the aviation news. Go put it in some freak of nature sex news instead!
What’s next? Are we going to start a  “Short Male Pilots Association” to feel protected and demand acceptance from tall women pilots?
How about the “Vegetarian Pilots Association”. They could find protection from harassment of being forced to fly for $100 hamburgers. Their members could exclude (be prejudice against) us carnivores, and fly to $100 watercress sandwiches on organically grown whole wheat. And only landing on organically grown native grass runways.
This is absurd. I did not know if my fellow students, pilots or instructors were straight, gay or vegetarian. I did not have any prejudice against them and their life style because I didn’t know and didn’t care.
Left handed pilots are obviously different too and it is much more obvious than being gay. I think the gays need to do what left handed pilots do when they get into a plane.
Just fly the plane and enjoy the scenery.
What’s next? An identity movement for persons in adulterous relationships, shunned and misunderstood because they abandoned their respective children and spouses for one another? And why should we put men and women in jail for having sex with so-called “underage” girls and boys; if they’re old enough to drive, ought we not respect their decisions? Why not student drivers? Why not anyone? Then how can it be a crime? Our culture is rapidly deteriorating; morality, once publicly inviolable, has passed through being negotiable and has become irrelevant. I had hoped aviation might be spared. What has a person’s sexual activity to do with aviation? Why has GAN opened its pages to this? Â
What’s next? An identity movement for persons in adulterous relationships, shunned and misunderstood because they abandoned their respective children and spouses for one another? And why should we put men and women in jail for having sex with so-called “underage” girls and boys; if they’re old enough to drive, ought we not respect their decisions? Why not student drivers? Why not anyone? Then how can it be a crime? Our culture is rapidly deteriorating; morality, once publicly inviolable, has passed through being negotiable and has become irrelevant. I had hoped aviation might be spared. What has a person’s sexual activity to do with aviation? Why has GAN opened its pages to this? Â
I agree with Pete.
Half the staff of the company I founded was gay/lesbian. As CEO all I cared about was the contribution each made to the success of “our” business organiztion and supporting the clients. Â
Someone really needs to get over himself. What a drama queen. Also, if we want the toxic identity politics happen to us, we ought to protect our identity that brings us together and not splits us apart. We are pilots, and if you are a pilot, I don’t care what else you are. Please inflict your protected class upon the population at large, while we’re dealing with issues relevant to GA.