Gay ww2 soldiers

Sailors went by queer personas like “Seabiscuit” and “Canteen Mary” and used feminine pronouns. It all came crashing down when one sailor’s diary fell into the wrong hands. My discovery of an official investigation into a large effete subculture among American sailors in New Caledonia in 1943 is a case in point. Blue discharges could be dispensed to anyone with “undesirable traits of character,” a term ultimately applied in large numbers to queer people.

While the discharges affected people of all races, it took a particularly heavy toll on Black soldiers, University of Michigan historian Jennifer Dominique Jones told HISTORY.com.

Once in the military, lesbians created social networks, with mannerisms and coded language aiding them in finding each other.

Or so our histories tell us. The best preventatives allegedly involved hard training and exercise, regular leave and recreation. Once he realized that “G” stood for Gordon Bowsher, he was shocked.

To help examiners distinguish gay men from other enlistees, psychiatrists wrote into military regulations lists of stereotyped signs that characterized gay men as visibly different from the rest of the population. On troop trains and ships, in dorms and at dances, on and off base, soldiers in and out of uniform away from wives and girlfriends were receptive to sexual advances by other men.

Homosexuality was illegal at that time, and being caught in the army as a gay man was so much worse. This rich boy had everything his heart desired, except the one thing that was most important- love. Letters between a gay civilian and a soldier? Furthermore, even when suspected of lesbian activity, efforts were made to retain all of the women in question.

A different way of being gay

Armies offered much more than male-only sex. But Pride didn’t start as a parade, 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.

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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 found having sex with other men.

The forces also foster other personal and collective identities at odds with public displays of military macho. Some sailors necked in public.

This indiscreet behaviour led to rumours. Investigators interviewed sailors at length in a months-long operation. Uniforms transform young males just beginning their lives from nobody to somebody.