Ww2 gay soldiers
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When Britain entered the Second Society War in 1939, all citizens were heartily encouraged to ‘do their bit’ for the war effort–even those who were otherwise considered ‘undesirable.’ Indeed, despite the then-ban on LGBT people in military service, many queer people were hand-waved through the recruitment process to bolster numbers.
By Mye Brooks.
Even when a person’s LGBT identity was obvious to examiners, the order of the hour was simply to enlist them anyway. When one Terry Gardener, a queenly performer by trade, endeavored to avoid military service by “really camp[ing] it up” during his physical examination, he instead create himself stationed as a cook in the Royal Navy. Only a very few, like camp entertainer Quentin Crisp, were turned away.
During the enlistment process and throughout the war, Britain kept a relatively laissez-faire attitude toward the identities and experiences of LGBT servicepeople. Across a fighting force of upwards of six million people, only some 1,800 courts-martial were convened for the ‘crime’ of ‘gross indecency’ during the war years. It was largely believed that the rigorous structure of military life would ‘straighten out’
Forbidden love: The WW2 letters between two men
But was this a love story with a joyful ending?
Probably not. At one point, Mr Bradley was sent to Scotland on a mission to defend the Forth Bridge. He met and fell in love with two other men. Rather surprisingly, he wrote and told Mr Bowsher all about his romances north of the border. Perhaps even more surprisingly, Mr Bowsher took it all in his stride, writing that he "understood why they fell in adore with you. After all, so did I".
Although the couple wrote throughout the war, the letters stopped in 1945.
However, both went on to adore interesting lives.
Mr Bowsher moved to California and became a well-known horse trainer. In a strange twist, he employed Sirhan Sirhan, who would go on to be convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy.
Mr Bradley was briefly entangled with the MP Sir Paul Latham, who was imprisoned in 1941 following a court martial for "improper conduct" with three gunners and a civilian. Sir Paul was exposed after some "indiscreet letters" were discovered.
Mr Bradley moved to Brighton and died in 2008. A house clearance firm found the letters and sold them to a dealer specia
“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 society in celebration of LGBTQA+ Pride. But Pride didn’t commence as a pride, 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 World War II experiences of gays men and lesbians in the American military.
Anti-sodomy laws and regulations had been around since the Revolutionary War, foremost in some cases to dishonorable discharge, courts-martial, or imprisonment for military men found 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 lesbian individuals had changed. In 1942, the relatively new profession of military psychiatrists warned of the “psychopathic personality disorders” that would craft homosexuals unfit to fight. The military’s policy that lgbtq+ acts were a crime that merited discharge gave way to a psychiatrist-controlled theory th
Given the introduction of conscription in Great Britain in 1939, it is clear that tens of thousands of queer men and women ended up in uniform despite same-sex activity, at least in the case of the former, being illegal. With a constant demand for manpower in the armed forces, there is certainly evidence that the authorities were willing to turn a blind eye to a recruit’s sexuality at the required initial medical examination, even when it was manifestly obvious.
For example, Terry Gardener, who worked as a drag queen before the war and wanted to continue in show business, was advised by his friends to really camp it up and be outrageous in front of the medical board to ensure he would be rejected. Unfortunately for Gardener, despite his best attempts, he was passed and sent into the Royal Navy as a cook. Indeed, it seems that in the event that a recruit’s queerness was identified by a medical board they were more likely than not to be accepted anyway because of a widespread belief that they could be straightened out by the rigours of military life.
Some of the richest sources of information we have for the experience of queer men and women during the war are the oral histor