As "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end, we sent Chris Heath to terview dozens of gay servicemen om the past and prent to fd out what life was really like as Ameri's ary stggled wh s last great inty crisis
Contents:
- WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
- THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
- GAY SAILOR
WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
In Sailors and Sexual Inty, thor Steven Zeeland talks wh young male sailors--both gay- and straight-intified--about ways which their social and sex * are sailors gay *
Gay bars ports around the world mirrored this, as did the spread of the queer language Polari (a way to speak openly and whout overtly crimatg yourself).
Gertler lived near Hampstead Heath om the wter of 1914–1915 – how nsc was he that the landspe he pated here was heavily d gay male sexualy? Prumed or weaponised homoeroticism for edic effect masks a eper and more nuanced experience of gay male life that ntemporary dienc expect today – one that clus homo-affectnate iendship, romantic nnectn, and tersectnal inty.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
* are sailors gay *
Source:The Oxford Encyclopedia of Marime HistoryJo StanleyHomoeroticism sgle-sex rintial muni, particularly the ary, has a long history and is a predictable form of sexual exprsn... DoD LGBTQ+ Timele: This timele not signifint events and polici chronologil orr that had a signifint impact on Department of Defense (DoD) polici, stctns, or orrs as they relate to the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer (LGBTQ+) muny. I’m sure there will be some issu once women are fully tegrated to crews, but if people are worried about male and female sailors aternizg, see my earlier answer as to the gay dus onboard.
This past sprg, bat trag before my ployment to Afghanistan, someone found out I was gay, walked up to me and said, "I'm glad I'm not ployg wh you, I wouldn't tst a fag wh my life. I distctly remember one day when an stctor said, "Oh look at those faggots, " and then turned to sayg, "Wa, 's OK to be gay, YOU jt n't be gay. I feared I would be rejected by people I once was iends wh, terrified that the learship above me would look at me as ls of a man, or that any acplishment I have will be attributed to me beg gay, and not my mer.
Their excln om service and s remembrance for much of the 20th century have left a dark unrbelly of misogyny, racism and homophobia.
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
When gays had to be closeted, ships were the only plac where homosexual men uld not only be out but also mp. And on some lers to the sun and the New Wor * are sailors gay *
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.
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.
GAY SAILOR
When a guy, gay or straight, danc wh a iend who's a girl and prevents pervs om grdg on her by grdg on the pervs till they go away." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * are sailors gay *
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”. Rictor Norton, at his webse Homosexualy Eighteenth-Century England, has llected an imprsive number of primary sourc, though few reference sailors. Somethg that be clear Norton's work is that there was ltle or no legal distctn at the time between those who engaged a sgle same-sex act, those who were exclively homosexual, and anyone who fell between.
In his A Queer History of the Uned Stat, Michael Bronski pots out that the very term 'homosexual' wasn't vented until 1869 'to help nstct a narrative around a person fed by his or her same-sex sexual sir and actns. We nnot say that sailors who engaged homosexual acts intified as homosexual, nor n we say that others fed them as such before they were nvicted.
Brish society believed that a lack of accs to women gave rise to homosexualy, and there was perhaps no place the eighteenth century so exclively male as the navy.