Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men the Milary | GQ

Contents:

• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• GAY ARY STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• GAY SOLDIERS STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• ARMY’S ‘GAY SOLDIERS’ PHOTO WAS STAGED, IS MISLEADG
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO SERVED THE FIRST WORLD WAR
• THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

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

Before "don't ask, don't tell" was officially repealed for gay, lbian, and bisexual ary personnel 2011, a photo of a male Mare drag uld have land him hot water. "Lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel had been servg our untry for s whout receivg equal protectn, while transgenr troops are still prohibed om servg openly.

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. 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 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. 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.

IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS

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 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.

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. 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.

Tammy Smh, the ary’s hight-rankg openly gay officer, me out 2012, she has tried beg an example of livg thentilly while also beg a bean of visibily to other Soldiers and their fai. As difficult as was for her, g out publicly as gay “may not have been as easy for someone who was at a lower rank, ” Smh said an terview last week. But is ccial to unrstand that you nnot view the photographs through the prism of our morn culture and current nceptn of homosexualy.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

The term “homosexualy” was fact not ed until 1869, and before that time, the strict dichotomy between “gay” and “straight” did not yet exist.

It was a behavr — accepted by some cultur and nsired sful by at the turn of the 20th century, the ia of homosexualy shifted om a practice to a liftyle and an inty.

As this new nceptn of homosexualy as a stigmatized and onero intifier took root Amerin culture, men began to be much more reful to not send msag to other men, and to women, that they were gay. At the same time, also may expla why untri wh a more nservative, relig culture, such as Ai or the Middle East, where men do engage homosexual acts, but still nsir homosexualy the “crime that nnot be spoken, ” remas mon for men to be affectnate wh one another and fortable wh thgs like holdg hands as they walk. Whether the men below were gay the way our current culture unrstands that ia, or the way that they themselv unrstood , is unknowable.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

The men’s very fortable and faiar pos and body language might make the men look like gay lovers to the morn eye — and they uld very well have been — but that was not the msage they were sendg at the time. Bee homosexualy, even if thought of as a practice rather than an inty, was not somethg publicly exprsed, the men were not knowgly outg themselv the shots; their pos were mon, and simply reflected the timacy and tensy of male iendships at the time — none of the photos would have ed their ntemporari to bat an the thor of Picturg Men, John Ibson, nducted a survey of morn day portra studs to ask if they had ever had two men e to have their photo taken, he found that the event was so rare that many of the photographers he spoke to had never seen happen durg their reer.

The snapshots ually were veloped by someone else who would have gotten a look at all of them, so aga, the pictur were not likely purposeful exprsns of gay love, but rather ptured the very mon level of fort men felt wh one another durg the early 20th of the reasons male iendships were so tense durg the 19th and early 20th centuri, is that socializatn was largely separated by sex; men spent most their time wh other men, women wh other women.

In the 50s, some psychologists theorized that genr-segregated socializatn spurred homosexualy, and as cultural mor changed general, snapshots of only men together were supplanted by those of ed all male environments, such as mg mps or navy ships, was mon for men to hold danc, wh half the men wearg a patch or some other marker to signate them as the “women” for the eveng. But the 50s, when homosexualy reached s peak of pathologizatn, eventually they too created more space between themselv, and while still affectnate began to teract wh ls ease and ’s not te that Amerin men are no longer affectnate wh each other at all. Servg is such an unqutnably manly thg, that homophobia dissipat; soldiers re ls about one’s sexualy than whether the man n get the job man who served WWII and experienced tense mararie wh his battlefield brothers, often had trouble adjtg to life back home, which he got married, settled the suburbs, and felt cut off and isolated om other men and the kd of ep iendships he had enjoyed durg the BuddyLife is a book that we study Some of s leav brg a sigh There was wrten by a buddy That we mt part, you and INights are long sce you went away I thk about you all through the day My buddy, my buddy Nobody que so te Miss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youMiss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youYour buddy miss you, y I doWrten 1922 by Walter Donaldson, “My Buddy” was origally spired by the heartbreakg ath of Donaldson’s fiancee, but was adopted durg WWII by the troops as a way to exprs their ep attachment to each other.

GAY ARY STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

And may also be traced to the culture’s greater acceptance of homosexualy, although that has turn solidified beg gay as an inty, and seems unlikely that men will cease wantg to munite to others whether they are homosexual or heterosexual anytime soon. A picture of two male Israeli soldiers holdg hands, posted by Israel’s ary spokman and circulated wily on the web this week as part of gay pri month, was staged and is misleadg, The Tim of Israel tablished Tuday. The newly hip, multimedia-savvy IDF Spokperson’s Office posted Monday on s Facebook page a photo of two ostensibly gay soldiers, one seemg to belong to the Givati Briga and the other to the Artillery Corps, holdg hands and walkg on a cy street.

In fact, the two soldiers the photo are not a uple, only one of the two is gay, and both the soldiers serve the IDF Spokperson’s Office.

GAY SOLDIERS STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

The photo has garnered thoands of “lik” on Facebook and has been hailed by the Foreign Mistry as evince of the Israeli army’s unique tolerance toward homosexualy.

Male homosexual sex was outlawed Israel until 1988, and the 1950s the IDF was the only official state stutn to try and jail soldiers for engagg such behavr, acrdg to the Israeli Natnal LGBT Task Force.

ARMY’S ‘GAY SOLDIERS’ PHOTO WAS STAGED, IS MISLEADG

The IDF Spokperson’s Office lled the matter of homosexualy a “non-issue, ” sayg that “jt as there is no policy plac for blonds and bs, so too is there no special policy for gays. The exact number of gay and transgenr soldiers is one of the better-kept secrets the army, acrdg to Chen Langer of the Israeli Natnal LGBT Task Force. While the army evaluators who nduct pre-ductn terviews are traed to intify gay soldiers and to ask them about their sexual orientatn, the qutns are always “ the realm of affirmative actn, ” he said.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO SERVED THE FIRST WORLD WAR

In s officer trag the army clus prentatns om LGBT rights groups, perhaps outperformg all other large anizatns Israel s acceptance of homosexualy. But while homosexualy the ranks is officially accepted, the army appears to rema sensive to the sexual orientatn of higher-rankg officers, Langer said, and there are few homosexuals the upper echelons of the armed servic. Two women, both active duty sailors the Navy who gave their nam as Nikki and Lisa, kissed as they marched the Gay Pri Para San Diego 2011.

THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY

Defense Secretary Leon Pata thanked gay ary members for their service, and the Pentagon marked June as gay pri month wh an official salute.

HomeHistoryIn DepthDiscrimatn and persecutn has led to gay soldiers of the Great War beg seen as tragic figur, but this was not always the seGetty ImagThe Royal Brish Legn is lnchg a mpaign today to mark 100 days before the 100th anniversary of the armistice that end the First World will be revealg a 3D “Thank You” stallatn on London’s Southbank before embarkg on a natnal cy tour to “thank the First World War generatn who served and sacrificed to benef generatns to e” centenary has also offered an opportuny for the ls well-known figur of the war to be discsed, cludg women, black and mory ethnic people and homosexuals, many of whom faced discrimatn spe servg their acts between men often rulted rporal punishment or imprisonment, and th acunts of gay servicemen om this time are rare.

Today, the Brish armed forc wele people of all sexual orientatns, recg gay magaz and anisg LGBTQ pri many gay soldiers served the First World War? Homosexualy was not only illegal the UK at the time, but there were also “strong social currents, particularly among the upper class, opposg same sex relatnships”, East Ssex WWI a rult, Harvey wr that “at least 230 soldiers were urt-martialled, nvicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment for homosexual offenc” were homosexual solirs treated?

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Stephen Bourne, thor of Fightg Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served Two World Wars, pots to Edward Brta, a soldier om Macclfield who earned the Milary Cross for his “gallantry” the Battle of the was killed by Atrian gunfire 1918, but after the war his sister Vera revealed that the prev day he had been acced of homosexual activy after a letter of his was opened by a censor. “When I started to look closely at the experienc of gay men the war, I found that, spe homophobia, there were many who were tegrated, ” Bourne told The Week.

Although many gay men quietly outed themselv and were accepted by their ras, efforts would have been taken to hi this fact om stggle is evint cryptilly phrased letters om the example, celebrated poet Wiled Owen, who never me out but is believed by some to have been gay, wrote to his 1918: “There are two French girls my billet, dghters of the Mayor, who (I suppose bee of my French) sgle me for their joyful gratu for La Déliverance. The First World War “sparked the morn gay rights movement”, wr Lrie Marhoefer, an assistant profsor of history at the Universy of Washgton, on The Conversatn.