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

Contents:

• HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• NEW WWI MOVIE TO FEATURE A GAY LOVE STORY
• GAY RIGHTS

HOW WWI SPARKED THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Though the movement that lled self “homosexual emancipatn” began the 19th century, my rearch and that of historian Jason Crouthamel shows that the war turned the 19th-century movement to gay rights as we know today.

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.

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

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). "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. 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 .

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.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

"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. ’ 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.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

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. Some likely post-repeal plitns: ristant pockets of homophobia the ary; the ntued right to voice certa homophobic sentiments unr, for stance, the eedom of relig exprsn; possible aternizatn charg if gay servicemen of different ranks ntue to associate wh each other as they often did the silent years; growg disquiet at the absence of partner rights equivalent to those for servicemen’s wiv.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

More than a century before Apti Aluadov, Chechnya’s puty terr mister and a manr of s police forc, told out ABC reporter Jam Longman last month the same thg that Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has said, that there are no gays their untry; more than a century before Bishop Godey Makumbi of the Wt Buganda Dce of the Church of Uganda said 2012 there are no gays Uganda; more than a century before then-Print of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadejad said 2007 there aren’t as many gays his untry as the Uned Stat, var untri were claimg that homosexualy was somethg that only existed beyond their borrs. Followg German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebg’s 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis which foced on a number of “sexual pathologi, ” particularly homosexualy, was the send his 12 psdoscientific, psychopathologil romans à l’e rose (romance or trash) novels he lled, L déséquilibr l’amour (The Lunatics of Love). The sensatnal 1907 Harn-Eulenburg affair which bet members and nfidants of the Kaiser were publicly acced of beg gay rerced this naive ncept and was a wele distractn England om the lgerg stk of the Osr Wil trials.

Then, durg WWI, a thls, amb member of the Brish Parliament named Noel Pemberton Billg who uld have given any ntemporary Amerin Antigay Indtry lunatic a n for his or her magogic money, published an article (allegedly wrten mostly by his assistant edor) lled “The Forty-Seven Thoand” which referred to “47, 000 highly placed Brish perverts” beg blackmailed by the Germans to “propagate evils which all cent men thought had perished Sodom and Lbia.

NEW WWI MOVIE TO FEATURE A GAY LOVE STORY

Eager to get even wh gays who’d nounced or shunned him for betrayg Osr, Douglas had earlier played his own direct role fanng wartime homophobia by wrg a pamphlet that sold thoands of pi: “Two fo thou hast, one there one here, One far one ultimately near, Two filthy fogs blot out thy light: The German, and the Sodome. Some fay and iends vehemently nied he was gay at all, as did some born after his ath such as late Irish thor and civil servant Eo Neon who wrote: “No one who knew him believed the allegatns and [they] are unanimo about his extremely high sense of moral tegry… The virtual impossibily of his practicg the gross generaci at all, let alone wh the equency alleged, is monstrable.

Some evince of what might be lled today “sexual tourism” asi, Dudgeon noted: “It has to be said that the diari, as well as beg an important part of Irish history, are also a val part of gay history the twentieth century. But Mchell’s assertn that “Dudgeon upheld the diari as the heart and soul of Casement’s bgraphy and ed them provotively as a means of stabilizg (or queerg) the martial spir of Northern Irish Prottant natnalism and reprentg as some viant youth movement” smells of the same kd of homophobia Neon exhibed but Mchell ni. In any se, his assertn that “In 1916, homosexualy was still punishable unr English law by executn” serly impacts his credibily given sodomy stopped beg a pal crime wh enactment of the Offens agast the Person Act of 1861.

GAY RIGHTS

As they did their profsnal approach to every other aspect of life, s before the Village People’s double-entendre “In the Navy, ” gay brother illtrators JC and Frank Leyencker brought their “hi pla sight” and naked phallic symbolism that might make Frd blh to their work durg WWI, om official recg posters to magaze vers to advertisg for men’s cloth. Fally, The Sexual History of the World War, wh “eyewns reports by hundreds of men and women participants the World War; scribg the sex life the warrg natns, ” Germany’s legendary sexologist and founr of the world’s first gay rights anizatn Magn Hirschfeld wrote: “The assumptn that the nscly erotic form of raship was not equent is the more jtified sce there are reports of a not nsirable number of such s between soldiers of the same rank as well as between soldiers and officers.

Gay activy was a urt-martial offence, jail sentenc for so-lled "gross cency" were mon, and much of society strongly disapproved of same-sex was not until the Sexual Offenc Act 1967 that nsentg men aged 21 and over were legally allowed to have gay relatnships - and beg openly gay the armed servic was not allowed until letters, which emerged after Mr Bradley's ath 2008, are rare bee most homosexual upl would get rid of anythg so crimatg, says gay rights activist Peter Rose.