m2m and WWII

[Guest timgetrum]

Just finished reading a book about World War II, GIs in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, etc. The author, a straight guy and not a participant, states there was little m2m activity. I assume he is wrong. Can anyone point me to writings by a gay WWII GI, who had a different personal experience?

[Bilbo]

Not to hijack the thread, but I had heard that there was a (division?) which was kept in London under Eisenhower which was basically all gay. I wonder if there might be a book about that situation? As just one of I hope at least several possibilities.

[pierrot]

Given the unlikelihood of anyone in the 1940s admitting to homosexual activity in the 1940s, how could anyone make any realistic assessment of what went on?

Of course the level of shame and the danger of retribution were much bigger factors in WWII than now, so repression by men who felt "the urge" must have been much more prevalent. Still human nature is never totally repressed...and I doubt anyone could write with much authority on something with so few possibilities of research.

[+ bigjoey]

gore vidal talks a little bit about this in his bio.

[Guest timgetrum]

>Given the unlikelihood of anyone in the 1940s admitting to

>homosexual activity in the 1940s, how could anyone make any

>realistic assessment of what went on?

 

I was thinking that guys, who were 18 - 22 years old in 1944-45, might have written in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and 1970s, at 55 - 65 -75 years old, about their experiences in the war.

[Guest zipperzone]

In the October issue of Vanity Fair there is an excerp from a new bio of Katherine Hepburn. In it the author writes about homosexuality in Hollywood in the late '40s. He tells of a gas station/car repair shop in LA, owned and operated by a gay guy that was a cover for a male brothel. Rich, in-the-know film types would visit the gas station and be taken into the shop which was staffed by hunky gay service men, returned from active duty, who would service the clients sexually. Puts a whole new spin on an oil & lube job.

 

I found the description of the place rather erotic and the writer seemed to know what he was talking about. Evidently the propritor is still alive and it is a well known "secret" that this went on. It says the police were always puzzled as to why so many luxurious cars were always parked outside this one station, but evidently they never bothered to check it out.

 

Interesting bit of folklore about tinseltown........ and I only mention it here as it appears to have featured servicemen.

[Lankypeters]

Is this the same service station where Richie Gere did all those hot photos when he was on the way up, as it were. Can't remember the famous photog. who did all those.

 

 

Lankypeters

[Guest backbaygayguy]

This title comes immediately to mind -- Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two by Alan Berube, paperback 2000, reissue of 1990 hardcover

 

The book was the basis for Gay in World War II: Abuse by the Military, an hour-long television film in 1995.

 

Berube is gay and lived in SF when the book came out; I don't think he was trained as a professional historian but has done much research and the book was well-received.

[+ Hoover42]

>Is this [...] where Richie Gere did all those hot photos [...]

>Can't remember the famous photog.

 

That would have been Herb Ritts. That particular gas station was supposed to be somewhere in San Bernardino, I think.

 

...Hoover

[Lankypeters]

>In the October issue of Vanity Fair there is an excerp from a

>new bio of Katherine Hepburn. In it the author writes about

>homosexuality in Hollywood in the late '40s

 

 

The Vanity Fair piece is excellent, culling much of what has swirled about Hepburn for years and clinching points with new quotes. That Hepburn had lesbian affairs and Tracy gay liasons (when he was stoned drunk) leads to a larger, more significant point: that the public, then as now, bought into Hepburn's press manipulations and ended up adoring images that had little, if any, grounding in reality.

 

Read it. The spin continues today. Bush probably hasn't read or heard of George Orwell but he know and uses the methods Orwell defined.

 

Lankypeters