When 17-year-old Vance McFadyen’s three-year term with the Royal Canadian Navy was cut short after 11 months by a medical discharge in 1960, there was nothing wrong with him medically.
The lie he told family and friends was that he’d been let go because of acute sea-sickness.
The truth was he’d been discharged because he was gay.
During his first shore leave in Bermuda he had gone out partying with another sailor and was invited to the home of a 30-something hotel manager.
“I fell in love, I thought,” the long-time New Westminster resident told the Record. “I thought I was going to live in Bermuda for the rest of my life. I was a very insecure, immature 17-year-old, so I stayed AWOL for two-and-a-half days until he was tired of me and I had to go back to the ship.”
Upon his return, he was shunned, given the silent treatment by the entire crew, he said.
He was charged with being AWOL and, after breaking down and admitting to his duty officer that he was gay, he was sent home on the next ship back to Halifax – isolated in the sick bay for the duration of the trip.
Two days after his arrival, he was taken by himself to a large gymnasium, seated on a chair and interrogated by four officers.
“They started grilling me, asking me questions,” McFadyen said. “The first question they asked was what role I played. I remember that very distinctly. I didn’t know what they were talking about; I was too naïve. I said, ‘What do you mean, what role did I play?’ They said, ‘Well, did you get buggered?’”
Shortly after the ordeal, McFadyen was given an honourable discharge for medical reasons.
“I had no choice. I was out,” he said.
“It screwed up my life pretty bad for the next 10, 12 years. I came back, and everyone was surprised I was back after 11 months when I’d signed up for three years. I ended up lying to my family, my parents, everybody. I told them the reason I was discharged on medical grounds is I had acute sea sickness. I held that lie for about 10 years.”
McFadyen, known in New West as the founder of Royal City Pride (now New West Pride) and the Seniors Gay-Straight Alliance, is one of thousands of gay, lesbian and transgender people who got an apology from the federal government this week for discrimination and persecution they experienced at the hands of the Canadian state.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology in the House of Commons to civil servants, military members and criminalized Canadians who suffered discrimination and injustice based on their sexual orientation.
“You are professionals. You are patriots. And above all, you are innocent. And for all your suffering, you deserve justice, and you deserve peace,” he said.
For McFadyen, who watched the apology at home on his tablet with 41-year partner and husband Curt Higham, the apology was deeply personal.
“I don’t think people can understand unless they lived through it, the feeling of being worthless, being a degenerate or not accepted.”
The apology comes with $110 million in compensation for LGBT civil servants and military members, like McFadyen, whose careers were sidelined or ended because of their sexuality.
The government will spend another $15 million on historical reconciliation, education and memorialization efforts.
It will also work to expunge the records of those criminally convicted for same-sex acts in the years when they were illegal.
“It tells me that not only society but the government has recognized the injustices done,” McFadyen said.
McFadyen didn’t start coming to terms with his sexuality and turn his life around until he was 33 years old, after six weeks of intense group therapy at UBC in 1973.
“Once I got my confidence back, then I realized I did have things to contribute to society and to my communities,” he said. “I felt brave enough to be out and to be myself and to get involved.”
McFadyen, who lived in New West from 1961 until moving to Vancouver Island in June, became a well-known public figure here for his community involvement, which included running for city council and the mayor’s seat as well as sitting on numerous boards and civic committees.
Current New West Pride president Mike Tiney said he had mixed feelings about the federal government’s apology, especially given the experiences of people like McFadyen.
“It means, to me personally, that we’re on the right track to get to the point where we’re just human – we’re not gay; we’re not lesbian, bisexual, transgender – we’re human,” Tiney said. “For the government to stand up and make note of that is a huge step in the right direction, but for the families that have been affected by what happened from the ’50s to the ’90s, I don’t know how anything can make it better and give back the dignity to those people.”
