Gay war veteran speaks out for equal rights Ukrae's ary | Rters

Contents:

• GAY WAR VETERAN SPEAKS OUT FOR EQUAL RIGHTS UKRAE'S ARY
• THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
• IN WWII, TWO GAY SOLDIERS’ FORBIDN ROMANCE LIV ON IN THEIR LOVE LETTERS
• SERGI AND BACCH: THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO WERE MA SATS BY THE CHURCH
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO SERVED THE FIRST WORLD WAR
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

GAY WAR VETERAN SPEAKS OUT FOR EQUAL RIGHTS UKRAE'S ARY

Pylypenko me out publicly as gay 2018 and -found a non-ernmental anisatn that supports LGBT+ Acquire Licensg Rights Read moreSummaryKyiv holds annual gay pri march on SundayGay war veteran mpaigns agast homophobia UkraeHop a more acceptg ary n help change attusKYIV, Sept 17 (Rters) - Viktor Pylypenko has bee a role mol for dozens of LGBT+ Ukraian war veterans and their supporters sce he anised their participatn two years ago Kyiv's largt ever gay pri march. Parliament outlawed workplace discrimatn 2015, though homophobic attus rema fairly pri march regularly attract unter-protts by far-right and relig activists. Pylypenko said his dream was for armed forc divisns to take part gay pri march "as alli and to enjoy the fact that they live a veloped untry wh human rights equaly where they are not ashamed of the topic of homosexualy but support and openly raise rabow flags".

THE FOTTEN GAY SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Members of Ukrae's LGBTQ muny who sign up for the war have taken to sewg the image of the mythil beast to their standard-issue eplett jt below the natnal practice harks back to the 2014 nflict when Rsia vad then annexed the Crimean Pensula om Ukrae, "when lots of people said there are no gay people the army, " actor, director and drama teacher Zhuhan told Rters as he and Romanova drsed their apartment for their send three-month bat rotatn. "So they (the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny) chose the unirn bee is like a fantastic 'non-existent' creature. "Zhuhan's unease lifts as one manr mak clear his refal to tolerate homophobia, and a more senr officer says the only important thg on the ont le is to be a good fighter, he subsequently tells Rters by one overridg fear, voiced back their apartment, remas.

By the law of averag – even if only 2% of people are homosexual, and not the one 10 that some have suggted – that means an awful lot of gay men fought and died. Some historians have suggted that the Great War helped to spark the morn gay rights movement. Lrie Marhoefer, an assistant profsor of history at the Universy of Washgton, has said: “Gay soldiers who survived the blood-lettg returned home nvced their ernments owed them somethg – full cizenship.

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

In Weimar Germany, she add, anisatns cludg the German League for Human Rights, which had about 100, 000 members, lled for some sort of gay equaly. For too long, too many of the gay soldiers never had their stori fully told – almost as if they, or at least their sexualy – had been erased om history. Although was not actually prohibed by Brish army regulatns – that didn’t happen until 1955 – homosexualy was illegal throughout the UK so most gay soldiers kept their sexualy hidn.

That said, homosexualy activy was “not exactly unknown” the Brish army, acrdg to historian A. War poets Wiled Owen – who died near the end of the war and is famo for works such as Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Dem Est – and Siegied Sassoon, who survived the war and whose poems clu Suici the Trench and Aftermath, were both gay, although was not public knowledge at the time. Another war poet, Rupert Brooke, once lled the most handsome young man England, is said to have scribed himself as one half outright heterosexual, one quarter outright homosexual and one quarter “sentimental homosexual”.

Gay servicemen who were open about their sexualy were often ostracised and reported to their superr officers for ‘cency’.

SERGI AND BACCH: THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO WERE MA SATS BY THE CHURCH

At least 230 fightg men were urt-martialled and sent to prison for var homosexual offenc. At least two other gay men had been sentenced to hard labour the sprg of 1915.

Many gay servicemen were tormented by what they thought was a sickns or a vice and saw the war as a way to rid themselv of . Long after the war his sister revealed that the day before he died, her brother had been acced of homosexual activy, followg the openg of a letter of his by the censor. But he met Ralph Hall the 1930s and they went on live together for 50 years until Monty’s ath Ralph died four years later, Monty’s ‘gay fay album’ was disvered.

War poet and, unknown at the time, gay soldier Siegied SassoonGee C Berford.

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

Legend has that the thor of the gay romance Mrice slept wh unr his pillow every night. One gay man who had a particularly eventful war was the future playwright and journalist Joseph Randall Ackerley.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

He was sent to an ternment mp ntral Swzerland, where he began work on his outspokenly pro-gay play The Prisoners of War, which exprs the b fever of ptivy and his trated longgs for a fellow prisoner. Ackerley was to bee one of the first high-profile gay personali and, 1942, spoke out agast the unfair treatment of homosexuals.

The experienc of gay men other armi seem to have been jt as poignant. All all, gay men fought – like their heterosexual unterparts – some gallantly, some ls so.