Serving in the Navy can be a drag…and that’s not a bad thing.
Joshua Kelley knows how to serve it up to his fellow seamen. The administrative supervisor aboard a ship off the coast of Japan, Kelley has taken on a dual identity, that of Harpy Daniels (no relation to Stormy), a fierce drag queen with a knack for doing the splits. And his fellow sailors love it.
Kelley first made his debut as Harpy as part of a competition sponsored by the Navy’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation department. With a $1,000 gift card on the line, Kelly donned a wig and heels as part of a lip-sync competition. A star was born; Kelley’s audience loved his athletic choreography and drag performance. Now Harpy Daniels makes frequent appearances to entertain her fellow shipmates, and Kelley performs without fear of being attacked for his sexual orientation, or for being too effeminate.
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“I have many LGBT friends here, and if you can stand at attention properly and speak with proper etiquette, that’s what it comes down to in the Navy,” he tells NBC News. “No one tells me I’m too feminine. I’ve not once had a bad experience as a gay man in the military.”
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Kelley grew up in Pennsylvania as half of a set of twins. In high school, he joined the drama department and color guard to nurture his love of performing for an audience, and his knack for fabulousness. He admits that it took his parents some time before they adjusted to his performing in drag, though once they saw him perform, they couldn’t resist. “[My dad] cried and said, ‘I didn’t know what this was,” Kelley says. “I didn’t know it was all this joy.”
Today Kelley, as Harpy Daniels, continues to entertain his shipmates with frequent appearances in lip-sync competitions, sending a message that a can entertain and serve his country…even while wearing heels.
You go, girl.
GayEGO
Wonderful news! I was in the Navy for 4 years as a Navy musician who played the flute and I received some harassment I was careful to keep my personal life separate from my military life, although there were band members who were curious about who I was living with, so I invited my partner as my roommate to a rehearsal. Once I satisfied their curiosity they were OK.
KevInSD
This is an insult to the approximately 60,000 LGB people on active duty, who don’t engage in transvestitism and gender deviance. I hope this story goes viral and the Navy shuts this down.
mark21764
I am a U.S. Army veteran and a gay man. Every other servicemember in my family was in the Navy and I wanted to do something different. I loved the Army. I miss it. I am out with 23 years of service. The Army paid for my education and I have other great benefits, including some great, lifelong friends. Harpy Daniels is tame compared to another naval tradition. All Harpy does is lip synch and dress up like a woman. He makes people laugh (which is good for morale). If sailors object to his shows, they can go to Bible study with the chaplain or take up knitting. No one is forced to attend his shows. They ought to give him a medal for entertaining the sailors. He obviously does his job well and is respected as a sailor or he wouldn’t be serving in the Navy or on a ship. His performances are obviously well known in the Navy and I imagine he is friends with other LGBTQ and straight personnel. If you are in the Navy or Marines, you’d be aware of the intense initiation that takes place when sailors (known as Pollywogs) cross the equator for the first time on a ship. Each department on ship has a sailor enter a beauty contest wearing a bikini (transvestitism and gender deviance according to KevinInSD). The Pollywogs have to sing, but not lip synch. Some male members of King Neptune’s court wear wigs and are dressed like women. Among other things, they have to lick the Royal Baby’s stomach which is coated with Vaseline (the Baby is usually a guy with a hairy gut). Guys get spanked. The men conducting the line-crossing ceremony are known as Shellbacks. Sometimes sailors are thrown overboard into a swimming net as part of their “baptism.” In many cases sailors have their heads and bodies shaved. The whole Navy thing is very homoerotic and more “shocking” than Harpy’s shows. Also, troops and sailors who put on cross-dressing shows for other servicemembers are known to have done this openly going back to World War l. I recommend that you, KevinInSD, learn a little bit more about military history. If I had known about the line-crossing ceremonies I might have chosen the Navy lol. We (including females) did “blood rank” voluntarily in the Army when receiving Airborne and Air Assault wings, higher rank promotions or medals. We were proud of our hard work and effort. Blood rank involved not placing the clasps on the pins on the rear of the wings, rank or awards and having people in the unit walk by and punch the pins on the wings, awards and rank through the uniform fabric and into the skin. I still have scars from this and it caused bleeding. It was funny and I have no regrets. No one, however, was forced to do this. We didn’t do anything like the Navy does in their line-crossing ceremony. This has been a Navy tradition for a long time. Even President Franklin Roosevelt (obviously, before he contracted Polio) was initiated and admitted to the Court of King Neptune as a young sailor. KevinInSD, are you a killjoy Republican hanging out on Queerty or a repressed homosexual? Obviously, if Harpy is performing openly on a Navy ship, then the Skipper and the Navy know about it. They’ve known about the line-crossing ceremonies for nearly two centuries. The only acts of depravity and deviance I can think of in the U.S. military were the homophobic murders of Army soldier PFC Barry Winchell in 1999 and Sailor Petty Officer Allen R. Schindler in 1992. These men were both 22-years-old and were beat and stomped to death by other members of the service. Allen’s body could only be identified by his mother looking at his tattoos; his head was caved in. Allen did do some dumb things, like sending a code to the entire 7th Fleet which said, “IM2QT2BSTR8.” Now that gay people can serve openly, gay people must be treated with the same respect as other servicemembers or face punishment under the UCMJ. There haven’t been any gaybashings in the services since Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell was discarded as a bad policy. I served at Ft. Campbell, KY with Barry Winchell and went to the courts martial of the killer and the co-conspirator. The killer is serving life with a chance of parole in 30 years. He will be nearly 50 IF he is paroled. He has now been incarcerated for over half of his life at Ft. Leavenworth KS. The co-conspirator served 12 years. The death penalty was an option for the killer, but he was 18 and his immaturity was taken into account. By the way, navies around the world practice some form of the line-crossing ceremony. Even navies in the former Warsaw Pact countries observed this tradition. Sometimes another initiation is celebrated when a sailor crosses the Prime Meridian, too.
Crystix
Why no video? I need to see miss Harpy in action! Bitch bettah WERK