Put's Anti-Gay War on Ukrae - Boston Review

Contents:

• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• PUT’S ANTI-GAY WAR ON UKRAE
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power. However, the Nazi mpaign agast homosexualy and the regime’s zealo enforcement of Paragraph 175 ma life Nazi Germany dangero for gay men.

The latter term dated to 1869, when a pamphlet advotg for crimalizatn of sexual relatns between men ed the term “Homosexualät” (“homosexualy”). In ntrast, the work of gay men that veloped around thor Adolf Brand and his anizatn Gemeschaft r Eigenen (The Communy of Kdred Spirs) took a different approach. Gay newspapers and journals, such as Die Frndschaft (Friendship) and Der Eigene (translated varly, but this ntext implyg “his own man”), ntributed to the growth of gay works.

In a further latn, the Nazis ed new laws and police practic to arrt and ta whout trial a limed number of gay men begng late 1933 and early 1934.

PUT’S ANTI-GAY WAR ON UKRAE

Three events the years 1934–1936 radilized the Nazi regime’s mpaign agast homosexualy and led to more systematic opprsn of gay men. Fally, 1936 SS lear and Chief of the German Police Herich Himmler tablished the Reich Central Office for the Combatg of Homosexualy and Abortn (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung r Homosexualät und r Abtreibung).

The notorly homophobic Himmler saw both homosexualy and abortn as threats to the German birth rate and th to the fate of the German people. Unverg the histori of gay men durg the Nazi era was difficult for much of the twentieth century bee of ntued prejudice agast same-sex sexualy and the ongog enforcement of Paragraph 175. For the first time, gay men who had suffered at the hands of the Nazis beme eligible for moary pensatn om the German ernment for jtic perpetrated agast them.

A few years later, May 2008, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (Denkmal für die im Natnalsozialism verfolgten Homosexuellen) was unveiled nearby Tiergarten park central Berl. The realy is that the Kreml has nstcted a pernic iology of homophobia as geopolics, and official Rsian rhetoric the war Ukrae is amed as the ntuatn of this polics by other means. The 2013 law banng “propaganda for non-tradnal sexual relatnships” among mors not only rtricted possibili to speak and rm about sexualy and genr issu public—somethg siar is now unfoldg the Uned Stat, should be noted—but also signated homosexualy as a danger to children and to society.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

” Acrdg to this logic, the facts that NATO expands to terrori Rsia nsirs part of s “sphere of fluence” and that European and Amerin lears talk of gay rights as universal human rights are two sis of the same . In 2013 the Rsian newspaper Izvtiya warned that Wt-sponsored LGBT activism uld spark a “gay revolutn” riskg to throw Rsia back to the societal chaos of the 1990s.

As the Maidan protts agast the pro-Rsian print Viktor Yanovych began Ukrae late 2013, Rsia’s largt newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed that the protts were -anized by “natnalists, anti-Sem, neo-Nazis and homosexuals. Protectg Rsian children—embodyg the natn’s future—om predatory homosexuals as well as om harmful LGBT iology has been a recurrg argument, ed to motivate both the 2013 gay propaganda law and the 2013 “Dima Yakovlev law, ” which banned U. Such a moral mappg fluenced the nservative genr polics of the 1930s Stal regime, when the Communists retroduced the ban on sodomy (which had been lifted after the 1917 revolutn) and explicly picted homosexualy as a secury threat the form of unrground, pro-Hler works of homosexuals—Healey lls the nservative turn unr Stal the “birth of morn Rsian polil homophobia.

The 1950s gay panic the Uned Stat, when accatns of homosexualy beme a smear tactic Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist csa and homosexuals were barred om servg the feral admistratn as they were seen as potential Soviet spi, has obv siari to how LGBT movements today’s Rsia are scribed as a fifth lumn planted by the Wt. In several untri Sub-Saharan Ai, cludg Uganda and Zimbabwe, polil and relig lears talk of homosexualy and LGBT activism as pawns of Wtern attempts to re-lonize Ai.

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

Pictur of Put or a Rsian bear fuckg NATO or a Wtern male lear om behd draw on both sexism and homophobia to pict the war Ukrae as a masculy ntt between Rsia and the Wt.

THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Rsia’s geopolicizatn of genr is mirrored by homonatnalist and femonatnalist disurs the Wt, when gay rights and genr equaly are portrayed as evince of “our” natnal superry vis-à-vis backward Others, whether Mlim immigrants or homophobic Rsians.

Variants of this logic are evint Christian nservativ and natnalists’ attempts to ban “genr doctratn” schools and higher tn across the Wt, Hungary’s recent ban on rmatn that “promot homosexualy” to children, and Brazilian print Jair Bolsonaro’s repeated attacks on femists and LGBT advot. Their excln om service and s remembrance for much of the 20th century have left a dark unrbelly of misogyny, racism and homophobia. Homosexualy, on the other hand, was nebulo and shadowy, a behavur and an inty type difficult to ppot wh any accuracy but potentially vastatg to the efficy of all-male forc.

Anxieti about homosexualy reached fever pch the send world war wh the risg fluence of psychology and s promise to make better armi. Atralia, Canada and Great Bra all heed “expert” warngs of the imment dangers homosexualy posed, but the US rang the alarm lour than anyone else.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Ocsnally historians strike lucky the archiv and stumble upon que extraordary evince which pels to re-evaluate what we thk we know about gay life the forc. Confintly queer personnel ducted ras like Jam Lord, documented his memoir My Queer War, to new ways of dog and beg gay on the home ont Boston.

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”.