Liberace, the Tory mister who sced a guardsmen - and a bterly divid Bra: Historian David Kynaston tells how the battle for gay rights spl the untry | Daily Mail Onle

FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
PRISONERS REVEAL MAT HAVE SEX WH GUARDS AND 'GOG GAY FOR THE STAY'
JAM WHARTON, GAY BRISH SOLDIER, MAK COVER OF ARMY MAG
WHAT A GAY OLD TIME THEY HAD AT THE GUARDS
GAY AT SEA – A LOOK AT THE US COAST GUARD’S LGBT COMMUNY
LIBERACE, THE TORY MISTER WHO SCED A GUARDSMEN - AND A BTERLY DIVID BRA: HISTORIAN DAVID KYNASTON TELLS HOW THE BATTLE FOR GAY RIGHTS SPL THE UNTRY

FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS

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 * gay guardsmen *

Eighteen guardsmen the ele Hoehold Divisn are beg discharged om the army for beg volved wh a homosexual magaze, and one officer is also beg lled on to rign his missn was announced the mons Mistry of Defence strsed that Bra’s secury had never been jeopardised through “Iron Curta blackmail. ” Intelligence chiefs had been ncerned about secury - both Brish and NATO’s - after a newspaper allegatn last October that several soldiers the Hoehold Cavalry were volved a homosexual vice rg.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Jam Wharton, Gay Brish Soldier, Mak Cover Of Army Mag * gay guardsmen *

9 Weeks, Jefey, “Inverts, Perverts, and Mary-Ann: Male Prostutn and the Regulatn of Homosexualy England the Neteenth and Early Twentieth Centuri, ” Hidn From History: Reclaimg the Gay and Lbian Past, ed. G., Grosskurth, Phyllis, ed., The Memoirs of John Addgton Symonds (Chigo, 1984)Google Scholar; Carpenter, Edward, Towards Democracy (London, 1914)Google Scholar, and Homogenic Love and Its Place a Free Society (Manchter, 1894)Google Scholar; Forster, E.

"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn. And therefore few people realized that the first Amerin serly wound the vasn of Iraq durg the send Gulf war was a gay Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " he had to lie on his paperwork.

PRISONERS REVEAL MAT HAVE SEX WH GUARDS AND 'GOG GAY FOR THE STAY'

And when, 2006, the battl over "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" the ary and gay marriage the wir muny were simmerg, Alva’s boyiend at the time poted out to him that he did have some notoriety that might be of e.

JAM WHARTON, GAY BRISH SOLDIER, MAK COVER OF ARMY MAG

(The meetgs have been arranged through a private onle work lled OutServe, set up only last year, which allows gay and lbian servicepeople a safe and secure way of fdg and munitg wh one another. In the shadow of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " whenever gay servicemen did face any kd of homophobic harassment, they were powerls to draw attentn to whout potentially triggerg the end of their ary reer. Of a number of latg events—Rocha was also force-fed dog food and locked to a sh-filled dog kennel—the most abive and explicly homophobic was when he was orred by his manr to act a dog-trag scenar, repeated over and over so that every dog the un uld be n through .

Anyone who gets off thkg that ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ unr the Bh admistratn anyone uld have gone and said, ’Hey, I’m beg antagonized unr the prciple that I might be gay’ and feel safe is absurd.

WHAT A GAY OLD TIME THEY HAD AT THE GUARDS

Life Seventy Years Ago as a Gay Serviceman: World War IIIt was only really around the Send World War that ary discrimatn beme dified and anized, and that the foc moved om simply sanctns agast homosexual acts to an attempt to intify and weed out homosexual tennci—though, as would be seen aga and aga, when fightg bodi were need badly enough, such ncerns would often evaporate. "JM: "I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact was sent home to their lol draft board, so that their whole muny would e to know that they were gay.

And this led directly to the formatn of gay ghettos the major ci, where people who uldn’t go home, bee their sexualy had been revealed by the army, had to move to Greenwich Village or the San Francis Castro. Manzella operated fully wh the vtigatn; when he was asked for evince that he wasn’t jt claimg to be gay orr to trigger a discharge, he even supplied photos, and footage of him and his boyiend passnately kissg on a road trip. "While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was.

I was nfed until beme clear that, partly by chance and partly by a cha of personal remendatns over the years, this trailer park had bee some kd of gay-veteran hot spot: There are eight or ten others livg here, and more nearby.

GAY AT SEA – A LOOK AT THE US COAST GUARD’S LGBT COMMUNY

’ The CO looked at my iend and said, ’If somebody wants to get off my ship for beg gay, they have to e to me wh two Polaroids, both of them they have to be clearly suckg ck, and I want to be able to see their face.

One Man’s Secret Too ManyIt’s temptg to see gay servicemen’s entire ary existence through the prism of this sgle issue—the mpaigner, the opprsed, the stoic endurer—and as the totaly of who they are. In June 1998, Richard Merrt (Mar, 1985–98) appeared on the ver of The New York Tim Magaze, uniform but wh his face obscured, and si the story scribed what life was actually like for someone gay servg the ary. ’" The way he sometim jtified to himself what he did was that was a rponse to the ary’s homophobia, albe an extreme one: "I would feel very angry at the policy, and beme ’Well, fuck you, Mare Corps—I’m gog to do this and be as gay as I want to be for the world to see.