In the early 20th century, the medil tablishment beme fixated wh the ia that gay people uld be “cured.” To achieve this, they turned to a lany of btal practic: om electrotherapy to lobotomi.
Contents:
- "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
- GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
- IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
- WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE GAY DURG WWII
- READ THIS HEARTBREAKG GAY WORLD WAR II SOLDIER’S LOVE LETTER
- HIGHLIGHTG GAY SOLDIERS WW2
- HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- NEW WWI MOVIE TO FEATURE A GAY LOVE STORY
- PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY
"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. * ww2 gay soldiers *
Liebman and more than 9, 000 Amerin servicemembers, however, eventually were given a Sectn 8 "blue discharge" for beg 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. In 1993, the Uned Stat was batg the discrimatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regardg homosexuals the morn ary. At the time, homosexualy was classified as a mental illns by the medil muny; mental illns was one ndn that disqualified young people om service.
GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
The Nazi regime rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy and persecuted gay men between 1933 and 1945. * ww2 gay soldiers *
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. Instead of chargg dividuals wh sodomy, a urt-martialed offense, the ary began intifyg spected homosexuals as psychopaths.
The new iendships gave gay and lbian GIs refuge om the hostily that surround them and allowed for a distct subculture to velop wh the ary.
Servicemembers on every waront enjoyed drag show entertament; an entire gay lexin was veloped om the wrgs of Dorothy Parker; and eventually an unrground queer newspaper emerged. The irony that the ary selected two homosexuals to reprent the ial image of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was not lost on Abry. The feral discrimatory actns drove LGBTQ people further to the shadows of society and embolned law enforcement and policians, who beme more vlent toward gay and lbian cizens.
IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
* ww2 gay soldiers *
Patrons of the gay bar fought back and sparked a vlent uprisg that started the gay rights movement the Uned Stat.
Gay and lbian veterans of World War II beme some of the first to fight ary discrimatn and blue discharg the years followg the war. My only hope is that anizatns around the untry m to pturg the voic of gay, lbian, and transgenr veterans and that we fd a place our history to honor their service as well. We sat down wh Sir John Dermot Turg, Alan Turg’s nephew and thor of a new book on Bletchley Park, to discs his uncle’s role pivotal role puter science and his persecutn for beg gay the 1950s.
Wartime film star Patsy Kelly's most fiant act was beg an openly gay woman an hospable climate for the LGBTQIA+ muny. In 1952, Alan Turg was forced to endure chemil stratn by the same ernment after beg prosecuted for homosexual acts. 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.
WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE GAY DURG WWII
Disver the untold stori of gay soldiers WW2, their stggl, and their urage on * ww2 gay soldiers *
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”). The newer slang word “schwul” (often translated to English as “gay”) was also creasgly popular among certa groups.
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. It was the relatively eeg atmosphere of the Weimar Republic that gay muni and works grew and veloped unprecented ways.
Some joed “iendship leagu” (Frndschaftsverbän), groups that polilly and socially anized gay men, lbian women, and others. 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. Shortly thereafter, they sought to dismantle the visible gay cultur and works that had veloped durg the Weimar Republic.
READ THIS HEARTBREAKG GAY WORLD WAR II SOLDIER’S LOVE LETTER
Nohels, the Nazi closur and creased police surveillance ma far more difficult for gay men to nnect wh each other. 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. Three events the years 1934–1936 radilized the Nazi regime’s mpaign agast homosexualy and led to more systematic opprsn of gay men.
HIGHLIGHTG GAY SOLDIERS WW2
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.
In the mid- to late 1930s, the police raid bars and other meetg plac that they believed to be popular wh gay men. In rarer s, the Kripo or the Gtapo would send a man directly to a ncentratn mp as a “homosexual” (“homosexuell”) offenr. For example, gay men tegorized by the Nazi regime as Aryan had far more optns than those tegorized as Jews or Roma (Gypsi).
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. The efforts of scholars and German gay rights anizatns have helped to brg the persecutn of gay men unr the Nazis to the public eye.
HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
In the 1990s, the German ernment acknowledged “persecuted homosexuals” (“verfolgten Homosexuellen”) as victims of the Nazi regime.
NEW WWI MOVIE TO FEATURE A GAY LOVE STORY
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. If he was found out, was likely that he would serve time prison, or even get shot by a homophobic soldier, and left for ad.
For years, they had dreams of leavg England and movg to the Uned Stat, where they uld live sunny California, which was known for beg more acceptg of homosexuals. What his fay probably never knew was that Gleed was homosexual, and that he uld not be open about his sexualy and talk about his was not until the 1990s, when one of his lovers, Christopher Gotch, was terviewed for BBC televisn, that the tth me out. It was wily believed that homosexualy would stroy morale, somethg Gotch cried as “a load of bbish” more | From the ancient world to the 1969 Stonewall Rts: a brief gui to LGBT+ history Another wartime myth ncerned the abily of homosexual men to show bravery unr fire.
PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY
Homosexualy PoW mpsWearg ‘lash and slap’, he joed a troupe of army entertaers that brought a se to troops servg remote parts of India, “bee was too dangero for civilians and women”. Wte ttifi that homosexual liaisons existed between all kds of prisoners the mp, and took many forms, om parcel sharg, holdg hands and heavy pettg to full-on sexual relatnships.
Quent Crisp, seen 1978, was rejected om the army the Send World War on the grounds of “sufferg om sexual perversn” (Photo by Ja Fri/Getty Imag)Returng to 'normal' after WW2Though remaed a crimal offence until the 1960s, for the most part homosexualy was unofficially tolerated the armed servic for the duratn of the war. For some heterosexual servicemen, homosexual sex was nsired preferable to gog to brothels and tchg a sexually transmted disease.
Others, who were found out, were urt-martialled, imprisoned and thrown out of the the end of the war, the Brish public wanted to get back to ‘normal’, so women were expected to return to the kchen, black recs were expected to return to wt Ai and the Wt Indi, and homosexual men found themselv subjected to the dranian law that would see them prison, even if they had helped to w the war. ”Read more | The 1967 Sexual Offenc Act: a landmark moment the history of Brish homosexualyShortly before he died 1999, Dudley Cave reflected: “They ed when sued them, and then victimised when the untry was no longer danger. I am glad I served but I am angry that ary homophobia was allowed to wreck so many liv for over 50 years after we gave our all for a eedom that gay people were nied.