”Over the years I’ve gotten several complaints about inappropriate materials during these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessly, through other channels. This evening, all of you bleeding hearts — and you fag SWO boy — why don’t you just go ahead and hug yourself for the next 20 minutes or so, because there’s a really good chance you’re gonna be offended tonight.”
Quote taken from the beginning of a Navy video given to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. The video allegedly features an officer, Capt. Owen Honors, as three different characters: the XO, a SWO (Surface Warfare Officer), and an aviator. The aviator refers to the SWO as being gay several times. Later in the video, clips feature a number of male and female crew members. It’s reported that a series of these videos were shown on closed-circuit video to the crew between 2006-2007, not all containing the same content.
Apparently the videos were meant to be humorous but, the Viriginian-Pilot reports, some aboard the ship did find the material offensive. It’s not entirely clear if the context of the content was meant to be hostile to gay sailors or had some other purpose.
The censored video that the Virignian-Pilot posted seems to depict a number of mock sex scenes featuring “gay” and “lesbian” situations — men in the showers together, women in the showers together, men in bed together, condoms and lubricant, along with other eyebrow-raising scenarios.
“The videos created onboard USS Enterprise in 2006-2007 were not created with the intent to offend anyone. The videos were intended to be humorous skits focusing the crew’s attention on specific issues such as port visits, traffic safety, water conservation, ship cleanliness, etc.”
From a statement the Virginian-Pilot says it received from the Navy in response an inquiry about the videos’ content. Allegedly, an investigation will be launched into the matter. (Virginian-Pilot)
”The videos created onboard USS Enterprise in 2006-2007 and written about in The Virginian-Pilot article on Saturday, January 1, 2011, are clearly inappropriate. Production of videos, like the ones produced four to five years ago on USS Enterprise and now being written about in The Virginian-Pilot, were not acceptable then and are not acceptable in today’s Navy. The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions.”
A second statement from the Navy condemning the videos. MSNBC says that senior officers had told Capt. Honors to “knock it off” without any formal discipline. (MSNBC)
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