The Greatest Gay Generation I Never Knew Until Now

(Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Time-Life/Getty Images)

The Straightest Story Ever Told
Most images and stories of World War II are so ingrained in my mind as a straight-only kind of club.  I imagine this is also frustrating to a lot of Black/African, Latino, Asian and other American cultural groups that don't often see themselves represented in the folklore and narratives of the Great War.  I think about the famous Times Square picture of a sailor embracing a nurse in a kiss or even the phenomenon of the Baby Boomers.  This is a whole generation labeled by the straight sex act; the fact that a bunch of soldiers came home from battle and got their girlfriends and wives pregnant.

A Hidden Gay History: Don't Tell the Children
Gay identity was not mentioned in the history books in school so I never had visible examples of LGBT heroism or sacrifice.  It was as if LGBT individuals were not worthy of acknowledgement or remembrance.  There was no place for them in history even though they had been a vital part of it.  Recently, reading a book called "The Gay Metropolis" helped me finally discover new truths about the "Greatest Generation" and how gay some of them really were. There were in fact true, gay heroes!

Uncle Sam Wants You (Unless You're Gay)!
All of my life, putting the words World War II and gay together in the same sentence never occurred to me.  My grandfather was a World War II veteran, and I just assumed everyone else was like him.  Well, mainly, I assumed everyone was straight like Donny Wright aka Papaw as I called him.  Weren't all WWII vets straight, white, blue-collar boys who grew up in the Depression, fought in the war to end all wars, and lived out the rest of their days in the American dream of Baby Boomer suburbia? Obviously, that is not the case as Americans of all walks of life sacrificed so much in World War II whether on the battlefield or the home-front.

Straight Heroes Among Us
Papaw's life had its hardships ranging from his parents' broken marriage to alcoholism and losing a son in Vietnam, but he also had much happiness in his family life and was a hero to us all because he was a survivor who had served in WWII.  I always was amazed to hear his stories about the war and looked up to him because of his veteran status.

The Largest Concentration of Gays Inside a Single Institution in American History
Yet so many men and women who served alongside Papaw were denied this same validation because of their sexuality in spite of how gay the military was. Charles Kaiser says in his book "The Gay Metropolis" that the United States Army during wartime was a "secret, powerful and unwitting engine of gay liberation in America." Lovers fought and died together in the war supported and accepted to an extent by their fellow soldiers. Kaiser says, "The wartime draft pulled all kinds of men together from every hamlet and metropolis.  The army then acted like a giant centrifuge, creating the largest concentration of gay men inside a single institution in American history.  Volunteer women who joined the WACS and the WAVES enjoyed and even more prevalent lesbian culture."

Soldier Ben Small Remembers Love Lost On the Front
Historian Allan Berube recounts examples of this in his book "Coming Out Under Fire" when the horrors of war brought loved ones out of the closet even for just a brief moment. Soldier Ben Small's boyfriend was killed by a bomb in his tent minutes after Small had said good night to him.

"This plane came overhead and all we heard was explosions and we fell to the ground.  When I got up to see if he was alright, the thrust of the bomb had gone through his tent and he was not there.  I went into a three-day hysterics.  I was treated with such kindness by the guys that I worked with, who were all totally aware of why I had gone hysterical.  It wasn't because we were bombed.  It was because my boyfriend had been killed.  And one guy in the tent came up to me, and said, 'Why didn't you tell me you were gay? You could have talked to me.' I said, 'Well, I was afraid to.' This big, straight macho guy.  There was a sort of compassion then."

Small witnessed another incident where an injured lieutenant was being evacuated from the Phillippines. He said, "It was an amazingly touching moment when he and his lover said goodbye because they embraced and kissed in front of all these straight guys and everyone dealt with it so well." He called it "a little distilled moment out of time" where prejudice and ignorance disappeared.

Don't Gag But Do Drag
There are many other fascinating stories about the complex relationship of gayness and the military from how doctors screened enlisting men for homosexuality by checking their gag reflex to military-supported drag performances put on to entertain the soldiers.  The gag reflex test was based on a stereotype that because gay men tended to perform oral sex they had a stronger resistance to gagging. If you are interested in further reading, I recommend "The Gay Metropolis" by Charles Kaiser as well as "Coming Out Under Fire" by Allan Berube.  Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" provides a novelization of queer life and love during the war. Protagonist Sammy Clay's coming to terms with his homosexuality is a central part of the story.  I also recommend the classic gay novel by Gore Vidal "The City and the Pilar." Amazingly, it was first published in 1948. Vidal was blacklisted by the media and the publishing world for several years after the novel was released due to its gay themes.

Let Us Honor the Forgotten and "Unmentionables"
Today is a day to honor all men and women who have served our country in the military including the ones we have forgotten about or never even bothered to mention.  The present debate over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is so much more real to me now that I realize the legacy that has already been established by these great men and women who fought for our country even when they had so much more to lose.  I hope in the future we can continue to work for equality and peace for all, in and out of the military.