World war 2 gay males
“Gee!! I Wish I Were A Man”: Queer Americans in World War II
June is Pride Month and festivals and parades are happening across the planet in celebration of LGBTQA+ Pride. But Pride didn’t start as a celebration, it started as a protest with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and many historians posit that the roots of these LGBT activists can be found in the Society War II experiences of gays men and lesbians in the American military.
Anti-sodomy laws and regulations had been around since the Revolutionary War, leading in some cases to dishonorable discharge, courts-martial, or imprisonment for military men set up having sex with other men. However, until 1942, no specific proviso barred homosexuals from serving in the military. With the growing acceptance of the validity of psychoanalysis in the medical profession in the 1920s and 1930s, attitudes towards sodomy and homosexual individuals had changed. In 1942, the relatively new profession of military psychiatrists warned of the “psychopathic personality disorders” that would make homosexuals unfit to fight. The military’s policy that homosexual acts were a crime that merited discharge gave way to a psychiatrist-controlled theory tha
Graduate Review
Abstract
While some queer Society War II soldiers, prefer Christine Jorgensen, returned from war to become pioneers in the field of gender and sexuality, not all had the alike support and experience. Anti-sodomy laws had a extended history in the Together States and its military, but no specific provision barred homosexuals from service until World War II. At the center of this change was the transition from a policy considering homosexual acts as a crime to a psychiatrist-controlled policy that homosexuality was an illness that made gay men unfit to fight. For those not excluded, the threat of an other-than-dishonorable discharge, or blue discharge, loomed overhead. While World War II served as a cultural shift for lgbtq+ individuals’ prospects for future advancement of their civil and human rights, the threat of discharge from the United States armed forces undoubtedly conditioned a response and environment that fueled homophobic ideology as evident by the maturation of psychiatry and sociology on homosexuality during the war, the downplay of intimate homosocial experiences, and the trauma associated with hiding from one’s sexuality and being outed at the sam
When the Military Expelled LGBTQ Soldiers With ‘Blue Discharges’
For the first 100 years of its life, the U.S. military relied on a two-pronged discharge system. Service members who left the military could receive either an “honorable” or “dishonorable” release. Outright dishonorable discharges were rare, however, because they required a court-martial trial.
At the end of the 19th century, the U.S. military began expanding its menu of options. It added a Without Honor discharge in 1893, followed by an Unclassified discharge in 1913. Both could be issued without a court-martial hearing, and because they were both printed on sky paper, they together became known as “blue discharges.” With WWII’s massive human mobilization, the military shifted from its practice of jailing soldiers accused of homosexuality (which required time-consuming, expensive court-martials) to simply deeming them psychologically unfit. Blue discharges could be dispensed to anyone with “undesirable traits of character,” a term ultimately applied in big numbers to gay people.
Blue Discharges Heavily Impacted Black Americans
While the discharges affected people of all races, it took a particul
Gay people
Lesbian, gay and transsexual life in Germany began to thrive at the beginning of the 20th century. Berlin in particular was one of the most liberal cities in Europe with a number of lesbian, gay and trans organisations, cafés, bars, publications and cultural events taking place.
Albrecht Becker – imprisoned by the Nazis for being gay
By the 1920s, Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code, which criminalised homosexual acts, was being applied less frequently. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science led the world in its scientific approach to sexual diversity and acted as an important public centre for Berlin lesbian, same-sex attracted, bisexual and transgender existence. In 1929 the process towards complete decriminalisation had been initiated within the German legislature.
Nazi conceptions of race, gender and eugenics dictated the Nazi regime’s hostile policy on homosexuality. Repression against gay men, lesbians and trans people commenced within days of Hitler becoming Chancellor. On 6 May 1933, the Nazis violently looted and closed The Institute for Sexual Science, burning its extensive collection on the streets. Unknown numbers of German gay men, lesbians and trans p
A Gay Soldier's Story
A gay soldier's story
PETER TATCHELL tells the moving story of a gay soldier during WW2, Intimate DUDLEY CAVE.
Over five million men served in the British armed forces during World War 2. Of these, it's likely that at least 250,000 were gay or bisexual (based on projections from the 1990-91 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles which found that six per cent of men report having had homosexual experiences).
A friend of mine, Dudley Cave, who died a rare years back, was one of these many gay soldiers.
Conscripted in 1941, aged 20 he joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps as a driver.
Before his death, he told me his story, with a mixture of pride and sorrow. I retell it here, in remembrance of a great friend.
Having risked his life during WW2, and nearly died in a Japanese POW camp, Cave was angry that once the war was over Britain's gay soldiers were persecuted and jailed by the military authorities.
"They used us when it suited them, and then victimised us when the nation was no longer in danger. I am glad I served but I am angry that military homophobia was allowed to wreck so many lives for over 50 years after we gave our all for a fr