This is a follow-up to an interview originally conducted by Rob Diaz-Marino (accidentally credited to Jason Clevett) in the February 2005 issue, entitled “Canadian Forces: Perspective of A Gay Calgarian.” In that article, Rob spoke with a gay soldier who, at the time, chose to go by the name of “Connal.” ‘Connal’ was preparing to start a tour of duty as a Communications Tech at a listening post in the Golan Heights, situated between Israel and Syria.
Master Corporal Les Champ has come a long way since joining the Canadian Armed Forces in 1996 at the ripe age of 17. At the time, he told himself he was actually bisexual and told everyone else he was straight.
As he told Gay Calgary.com Magazine in 2005, “I had some misgivings in the beginning about joining the Army, but since it runs on both sides of the family it was highly encouraged that I should join up.”
He says now that, “Originally it was for the money. I saw an advert in the school news that asked for people to work for the summer in Kingston Ontario, and make three grand. [That figure] nowadays is twice that amount and that’s just in ten years. The ad never really said anything about joining the Communication Reserves. [It didn’t really occur to me to go into that field] until I asked my guidance counselor about the job.”
The Canadian Armed Forces ad campaign touts “There’s No Life Like It.” Champ seems to be living the PR.
“As time has gone on it has become more of a lifestyle one can choose, and the thrill of living a fantasy is better than reality,” Champ says.
The fantasy aspect had less to do with a young gay boy fantasizing about butch soldier-warriors (although Champ thinks that may have been part of it), than it did with growing up reading books and hearing the stories of what his father and step-father did in the military.
“I’m fifth generation militia. It is kind of a family tradition for the first born male to join the Army,” says Champ. “To me, they painted a fantasy world of rough and rugged guys that were strong and...well...kinda sexy, in that people liked them. Sort of like the idea of the rugged cowboy.”
“The fantasy of going to other places was also present. My step-dad worked with the Navy and he would tell me stories of crossing the Atlantic to go to places like Denmark. The fantasy that I developed in my mind was of the rough and rugged man, traveling the world and helping people out, never seeking glory for himself, just thinking of doing a job well.”
The Canadian Armed Forces is one of the few military organizations in the world in which gay and lesbian personnel are officially accepted. The reality of day-to-day living amongst men, and some women, whose mindset is ‘career Army’ is another reality.
“I have gotten some negative reaction, but most people shut their mouths in my presence,” notes Champ. “It’s only from sources across the country that I find out what people say – and, yes, I have a reputation that is country-wide,” he laughs. “But, over all, it’s not really that bad. I don’t make a big show of being gay - I have a job to get done. Yes, I have to work twice as hard as my straight counterparts, but I can put people in their place very quickly and I will make fun of my ’gayness‘ to show people that I’m just like them.”
Asked if he is openly gay, Champ laughs. “I basically got outed at work. There was an attempt at an ’intervention‘ to make me realize I was gay,” says Champ. The young soldier, barely into his 20’s by then, was struggling with his attractions to men.
“I didn’t know any gay people and my mind was made up [back then] that gays were flaming, spoke with a lisp, and worked retail. When I tried to play straight, I think I tried to act, in my mind, how a straight guy would act…A crass asshole that treated everyone with an ounce of contempt and was just miserable to be around,” recalls Champ.
“One of my co-workers had a background in working with troubled kids so, along with my friends, they confronted me and told me ’Its okay to be gay Les, besides we like Gay Les better than Straight Les because the latter is an asshole. Be yourself!’”
He figures it was good advice. ”’Gay Les’ was me,” he now realizes. “He was the fun-loving person that gave a damn about people and was a lot happier and okay with himself. A little bit of ’straight‘ Les still comes out every now and then - mainly when having to fight for something I want - but I’ve tempered that with a realization that I can be myself and people are okay with that.”
Like many gay men, Les sometimes uses self-deprecating humour in order to fit in or diffuse a situation in which a fellow soldier might somehow be ‘threatened’ by his homosexuality.
“Sure,” he says, “I have used it as a defense mechanism to basically state ’Hey, call me what you want but realize I can beat you to the punch faster there mate.’”
“Normally I use humor to make fun of myself or to keep some people off guard and, yes, I have used it to fit in at times,” he admits. “I figure if I can’t make fun of myself and my [gay] culture, then how can I laugh at the rest of the world? …In a world that seems to have little to rejoice about some days, I have no real issue in trying to poke fun at myself.”
Operating in a United Nations peace-keeping environment in the Middle East, Champ often figured discretion was the better part of valor.
“I went with the best course of action for me - which was to shut my mouth and do my work. I felt it was not my place to say or state anything in an operational theatre,” he noted. “We were told before showing up that we were a Neutral Third Party and to not get involved with any of the locals, which as time went on, was fine by me.”
While Israel is a liberal democracy, there remains considerable hostility, especially amongst Orthodox Jews who hold considerable influence in Israel, towards homosexuals and homosexuality. Syrian attitudes towards gay people mirror attitudes found in the rest of the Arab world – extremely negative and potentially dangerous for anyone identified as being gay.
“I read up on the Tel Aviv Pride March and saw some of the pictures that CNN and the Jerusalem Post Online published,” remembers Champ. “I shuddered when I read about how the World Pridefest was to be happening in Jerusalem and all of the problems that came of that.”
“Religion is paramount in Israel. As a spiritual person, I got so sick of hearing how gays and lesbians were the ‘scourge of the earth’ and about how ‘the sodomites’ should be destroyed. I never brought my being gay up and I didn’t give a damn about it. But every now and then I would forget I was wearing a Pride Chain around my neck and I think some people saw it but never said anything…although, there was this waiter in Tarsus that seemed to be a little more friendly with me than he was with the other Canadians…,”chuckled Champ.
He found it difficult to get any information about the gay scene in Israel generally or even in Tel Aviv.
“The impression that I got from reading up on the news in the area, and trying to find out any information on the local Israeli gay community, was that Israelis were only tolerant of homosexuality if we all just shut up and stayed out of sight,” he said.
Not that he had much opportunity to check out the local scene in Tel Aviv, anyway.
“Tel Aviv was off limits and for good reason. While I was over there, a suicide-bomber targeted a club and five people were killed. Because of the pullout of Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip, our threat level was high and there were days that we could not even go to Jerusalem because of the tensions between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians,” recalls Champ.
Most of the images we in the West see of “the Arab World” consist of hysterical anti-American rallies, rioting, or hordes of chanting men wandering the dirty dusty streets firing automatic rifles into the air. Champ’s understanding is that Arabs still see themselves in a tribal mindset and that everything that effects the tribe’s survival must be countered at all cost.
“In Syria I never really had much of an issue (with being perceived as American),” says Champ. “I took a four day tour with a Syrian guide, and I came across other European tour groups in the process. When asked, I said I was Canadian and people had no real issue with that,” says Champ.
“As for Israel - I never saw a place that looked so like the United States. I ate at a McDonald’s (both the Kosher and non-Kosher restaurants) and Kentucky Fried Chicken.”
“Before I left for my tour, I was told that since the United States has very good relations with the Israeli government, it’s best to tell people in Israel I was American. Outside of that, I never really had an issue since I was sure that wherever I went I was perceived either as an American or as a European when I was on a tour group,” he says.
One would think that one of the fears,would involve being in an environment that is stressful, where ‘machismo’ is almost the order of the day, and that gay or lesbian soldiers would bear the brunt of repressed hostility in fellow soldiers. Asked if there were any problems with other units or other soldiers when, and if, they realized he was gay, Champ replied:
“I really didn’t have any problems since I was as macho as the rest of them. If I felt weak, or perceived that I was, I would do something that would prove to the other contingents that I was just as hard as them,” he states.
“The Poles once thought that it would be funny to see if I could down 200ml of Vodka. I called their bluff and saw how they raised their eyebrows at what I was doing. I also showed them how to do ‘Prairie Fires’ in retaliation. The score was even as far as we were concerned and we laughed it off,” he recalls. ‘Prairie Fires,’ for the uninitiated, are a lethal concoction consisting of a shot of tequila with five to six drops of Tabasco sauce. Champ warns it is a good idea to “have a glass of water ready to quell the fire in the stomach. And a good amount of Machismo to declare who is the bigger man.”
MCpl Les Champs is clearly proud to be a soldier, a Canadian, a member of the 746, and gay. He finished the interview by stating if anyone was interested in joining his unit, they could get more information by logging on to www.746.ca.
“It’s a communication unit, and we have the ability to go farther and do more interesting things than any other unit in the city. It’s an open and accepting unit with people from many different backgrounds.”
