Conferate and Unn: The untold history of gay Civil War soldiers - LGBTQ Natn

Contents:

• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ CORPORATE EDN: DESANTIS WANTS TO WAGE WAR AGAST BUD LIGHT
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• CONFERATE AND UNN: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF GAY CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

‘DON’T SAY GAY’ CORPORATE EDN: DESANTIS WANTS TO WAGE WAR AGAST BUD LIGHT

And then on June 30, the last day of Pri Month, DeSantis released a bizarre homophobic ad that showed a mashup of clips, headl, and statement ma by Tmp support of the LGBTQ muny juxtaposed wh a mashup of DeSantis dog his bt to make himself look tough while attackg LGBTQ rights.

A glossed-over element for me, however, is the experience of the gay man this perd.

"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS

Before I do so, however, I have to apologise twice: once for the very fleetg verage I n give to the subject matter owg to nstrats of space and, nnected to this, aga for the impersonal way this brief treatment necsat I portray the very real liv of homosexual men durg the perd. Homosexualy BraIn 1885, the Brish penal was modified to “improve the moral climate of the unty”, acrdg to Profsor Mort his book, Dangero Sexuali. Labouchere advoted the outlawg of any homosexual ntact whatsoever and parliament duly passed the bill to law.

Misrmatn asi, 22 officers and 270 enlisted men were urt-marshalled for homosexualy durg the war; this figure, though no doubt only reprentg a small sample of the totaly of such experience, is remarkably smaller than I might have gused.

However, examatn of evince om the trench by psychologists and historians turn up far more evince for homoerotic feelg than tent or actn and seems to suggt that homosexual clatn was wily reprsed. Any laws prohibg sodomy were repealed 1791, durg the revolutn, and so homosexualy was technilly legal France durg the war.

CONFERATE AND UNN: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF GAY CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS

However, this do not mean that the French attus towards homosexualy were much better than across the channel. Homosexualy was viewed as herently immoral and un-French – the practice of homosexualy was actually seen synonymoly wh Germanns both France and Bra.

There are suggtns that this might partly be the reasong, too for some Brish rerv about homosexualy at the time – as homosexualy do not lead to procreatn, prived the natn of children wh which to fend self. In this way, too, one might view the chief Brish sentiment at the time towards homosexualy as a treasono act, only ma more poignant by the very real loss felt by so many fai durg the lk between homosexualy and Germanns French and Brish mds durg the early twentieth century is probably part due to the Eulenberg sndal, where key members of Kaiser Wilhelm’s bet and entourage were ‘outed’ between 1907 and 1909.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Homosexualy Germany was illegal durg this time, and homosexualy the ary was punished wh a long prison sentence (pared to the ntemporaneo Brish practice of a floggg). However, spe the harsh nsequenc for natural feelg, there appears to have been a much higher cince of German homoeroticism the trench beg exprsed (based solely on private acunts, which is all we really have to measure this sort of thg).

It appears that Germans – particularly the officer class – were eher more willg to turn a bld eye to homosexual meetgs or else were better at evadg notice. Owg to the fact that our evince durg this perd om personal (and therefore private) acunts, we really have no ia how wispread actn of homosexualy was durg the war. The stori of gay men durg this perd are much the same as at most pots history – nial, reprsn and fear – yet tged wh the greater promise of stctn thanks to the ‘great’ war.