Lest we Forget... ALL the Soldiers. Gay and Straight.

Hey Steemers, So this isn't really an original post. I came across this amazing article and just had to share it. I'm a huge fan of remembering the fallen and returned on ANZAC day and never really spared a second to think about the gay soldiers who fought for my freedom. What did they go through to earn me the liberties I cherish today.

https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/sexuality/feature/secret-history-australias-gay-diggers-anzac

I recommend everyone have a good read through this article as its just priceless.

Servicemen bathe in Malaya, New Guinea, by crocodile infested waters (Australian War Memorial)

Some Memorable quotes:

"We had cases of homosexuals really falling in love. In the interests of general happiness we re-arranged some room occupants and eventually got all the homos in one block," he said.

“They conducted screening examinations to try to weed out undesirable personality types, as they would call them," Smaal says, adding that "they were quite unsuccessful at this".

A number of Australians had taken on the identity of ‘girls’ and were routinely ‘servicing’ other soldiers – several of them were former co-workers from department store David Jones.

Sometimes they drove off into the jungle for group sex parties.

One Australian soldier described routinely sneaking off to a US base and lying on a bed while black US servicemen had their way

But right back to Australia's early years, Smaal says it was easy for gay men to join the armed forces.

The ‘hyper-masculinity’ of the institution may have even played a part in attracting them.

“Some thought that the army was going to make a man out of them,” Smaal says.

The company of other heterosexual men would help them leave behind the perceived 'perversion and degeneracy' of their former lives.

“The irony, of course, was that they ended up in an all-male environment with limited opportunity for female company – the potential for homo-sex had never been greater,” Smaal says.

Sometimes it was latent homosexuality, sometimes otherwise ‘straight’ men found themselves having sex with other men.

“Plenty of men were happy to take their pleasures where they could find them,” Smaal says.

“It was amazing the number of gay people in the POW camp,” the Australian serviceman told Outrage, “well not so much gay as bisexual – because they couldn’t get a woman they’d have a man.”

Under fire, gay men would charge into “the thickest rain of bombs and the most deadly attacks,” Hirschfeld wrote.
After sifting through first-hand accounts, the doctor mused that some did so in the hope “that a bullet might put an end to their life, which they regard as being a complete failure.”

That's it for today.

Lest we Forget!

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.