BBC - WW2 People's War - A Gay Soldier's Story

Contents:

• PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
• GAYS THE MILARY SHOWS THOSE WHO FIGHT WARS AND PREJUDICE
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
• A GAY SOLDIER'S STORY
• HIGHLIGHTG GAY SOLDIERS WW2
• LETTERS REVEAL THE STORI OF GAY SOLDIERS WORLD WARS

PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY

Topics clu blue discharg; servg durg the Send World War; gay life and relatnships durg the Vietnam era; and servg unr Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Liebman and more than 9, 000 Amerin servicemembers, however, eventually were given a Sectn 8 "blue discharge" for beg homosexual.

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

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. 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

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.

GAYS THE MILARY SHOWS THOSE WHO FIGHT WARS AND PREJUDICE

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.

Photographg and terviewg gay veterans and servicemen to share their stori of supprsn, sadns and silence a movg photo say. Vcent Cianni, 63, said he embarked on the project, Gays the Milary, to better unrstand why homosexuals would enlist the ary to beg wh; voluntarily signg up for a system that did, and many ways still do, opprs them.

A major turng pot for gay people the ary me 2011 wh the overturng of Dont Ask Don't Tell (DADT), a disuragg policy signed by Bill Clton 1993 that ntued a ban on gay soldiers enlistg, but stopped vtigatns and 'wch hunts' to whether soldiers were bill was signed to protect the soldiers by keepg their sexualy a secret, however forced them to the closet and further ternalized their stggl.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Gay and the ary: Zachary Werth (left), says he was discharged om the Army Natnal Guard 2010 bee of his sexualy, while his boyiend, Dt Hiersekorn (right) left the Mare Corps due to medil reasons. They are one of the upl who appear Gays the Milary, a stunng photo say by Vcent Cianni documentg the stori of homosexual soldiers Veteran: Pl Goercke, of San Francis, is a World War II veteran who served Okawa, Hawaii and Saipan, said there was 'no evince of gay life' when he enlisted wh the Merchant Mar when he was 18 'The person I was datg was olr than me and had been the Navy que a b longer.

He has served sce 2002 and is still servgBefore DADT, which was enacted 1993, homosexual behavr was nsired a crimal offense wh the ary. 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”).

THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

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.

A GAY SOLDIER'S STORY

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. For example, gay men tegorized by the Nazi regime as Aryan had far more optns than those tegorized as Jews or Roma (Gypsi).

HIGHLIGHTG GAY SOLDIERS WW2

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.

LETTERS REVEAL THE STORI OF GAY SOLDIERS WORLD WARS

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. In the 1990s, the German ernment acknowledged “persecuted homosexuals” (“verfolgten Homosexuellen”) as victims of the Nazi regime. 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. 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.

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.