The first gay pub I dared set foot now has a rabow plaque. Here’s why that matters | Gary Nunn | The Guardian

Contents:

• IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS
• THE LTLE MERMAID IS REALLY ABOUT UNREQUED GAY LOVE
• FEATURED SHORT STORI STORI
• THE LTLE MERMAID'S ORIGAL STORY IS REALLY ABOUT GAY LOVE AND REJECTN

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

Margaret’s love letters to Ruth, posthumoly gathered To Cherish the Life of the World: Selected Letters of Margaret Mead (public library) — which also gave Mead’s prcient posn on homosexualy — are a thg of absolute, soul-stirrg bety, on par wh such famed epistolary romanc as those between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Geia O’Keeffe and Aled Stieglz, Henry Miller and Anaïs N, and Jean-Pl Sartre and Simone Bevoir. From the wonrful 1998 anthology My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuri (public library) — a diverse llectn of missiv verg the universali of romantic love, om longg and fatuatn to jealoy and rejectn to tenrns and loyalty — the rrponnce of Beat Generatn godfather Allen Gsberg and the poet Peter Orlovsky. Burroughs, another in of lerature’s gay subculture:.

Among morny’s most tragic victims of our shameful past is Osr Wil, who was imprisoned multiple tim for his “crime” of homosexualy, driven to bankptcy and exile, and fally succumbed to an untimely ath. Letters between gay men are credibly rare bee they were almost always stroyed.

Letters between a gay civilian and a soldier?

THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

This is an credibly rare photograph of a gay soldier and a man Paris durg World War II. Homosexualy was illegal at that time, and beg ught the army as a gay man was so much worse.

THE LTLE MERMAID IS REALLY ABOUT UNREQUED GAY LOVE

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. Two gay soldiers relaxg together uniform. Beg openly gay would not be crimalized until The Sexual Offens Act 1967.

Even then, no one uld have gay sex until over the age of 21.

Not surprisgly, there were other gay men that were drafted to the army as well. For the vast majory of gay men wrg letters to one another durg that time, they actually did burn the letters.

FEATURED SHORT STORI STORI

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. The Newly Disvered Love Letters Between Two Gay Soldiers In World War II Will Have You In Tears. War Time Love Letters Reveal Epic Gay Love Story Kept Secret for Des.

THE LTLE MERMAID'S ORIGAL STORY IS REALLY ABOUT GAY LOVE AND REJECTN

The Newly Disvered Love Letters Between Two Gay World War II Soldiers Tell A Heartwarmg Story Of Forbidn Love. Frankly, I’d have served a prison jt for him to hold my hand, like he did his off-whe Vxhall Nova on the drive there, breakg only to change, he took me for strawberry cir the Gloucter, a pub at the park’s edge, takg my tremblg hand his and reassurg me: “It’s actually a gay bar. Gay pubs are far more than bars; they’re refug.

On Sunday, the first a new seri of rabow plaqu will be stalled at the Gloucter – now the Greenwich Tavern – cementg s place gay home the workg-class Medway area of Kent, where we met when he sold me a phone cred rd at the lol petrol statn, “queers” like were wily perceived as predatory, perverted, spic or simply scum. ”After the strawberry cir, served by a man a tight whe vt – the only other gay man I’d seen real life – the squiggly summer sunlight ma a strobe effect through the park’s tre. The first time I saw wh him, when I was 18, I realised he had echoed the love story of the two protagonists, who also had their first kiss the twilight of Greenwich Park’s tre, and their first experience of a gay pub at the Gloucter.