The Nazi regime rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy and persecuted gay men between 1933 and 1945.
Contents:
- "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
- HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
Gay and Lbian soldiers faced extraordary discrimatn durg World War II. Most found new muni of people and thrived spe the opprsn. Disver the film Comg Out Unr Fire that shar their story. * homosexuality in war and peace *
“Unsirable” behavr—specifilly, an accatn of “attemptg to perpetrate an act of Homosexualy, ” as he explaed a letter to the Natnal Associatn for the Advancement of Colored People, om whom he was seekg legal help.
” Wh WWII’s massive human mobilizatn, the ary shifted om s practice of jailg soldiers acced of homosexualy (which required time-nsumg, expensive urt-martials) to simply emg them psychologilly unf.
Acrdg to Jon, the NAACP worked wh Black service members acced of homosexualy, like Lemuel Brown, to appeal to the Discharge Review Board for a changed stat—ually wh ltle succs. READ MORE: The Supreme Court Rulgs That Have Shaped Gay Rights Ameri‘Scientific’ Attempts to Intify HomosexualsIn their effort to screen out queer nscripts, ary officials ran to a problem: They didn’t have a nclive way of intifyg them, beyond a set of subjectively terpreted “signs” such as “feme bodily characteristics” and “effemacy drs and manner, ” acrdg to Allan Bébé, thor of Comg Out Unr Fire: Gay Men and Women Durg World War II. The doctor proclaimed that a tongue prsor tt uld screen out gay people not jt om ary service, but om other feral agenci as doctors began explorg whether they uld diagnose homosexualy—through Rorschach tts or by measurg sexualy through hormone tts.
HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Homosexualy was lobbed as an sult durg the war while gay people hid , but sometim would "hi pla sight." * homosexuality in war and peace *
) None of the theori panned part bee of the difficulti of scientifilly measurg queerns, the War Department January 1944 began to allow discharg on the basis of “latent homosexualy.
” That gave officials license to eject someone for homosexualy unr the blue discharge system simply bee they seemed gay—even if the ary lacked MORE: How LGBT Civil Servants Beme Public Enemy No. Among them was Harvey Milk, a Korean War veteran who went on to bee the first openly gay polil official the Uned MORE: For Centuri, Blackmail Was a Tool Used to Intimidate Gay Men.
GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
* homosexuality in war and peace *
Fellow wrer and airman Edward Field summed up nicely his short memoir when he noted the Amerin army had a “gay world built to ”, even if was very different to the gay inti wh which we are faiar today. As one Amerin sailor statned New Caledonia explaed to naval thori 1943 “ is more of the feme tra to want somethg that is mascule … It is the thrill of havg a [butch] man, and not another [effemate] homosexual”.
The 1994 documentary Comg Out Unr Fire giv voice to the experienc of thoands of gay and lbian servicemembers who joed the ary durg World War II, a story that is largely ignored by historians and mms across the untry. Gay and lbian recs were forced to answer qutns vaguely, or lie about their sexualy, orr to be allowed to serve; otherwise, they would n the risk of beg sent home and brand as “sex perverts.