One of the Boys: Homosexuality in the Military during World War II

by Paul Jackson

Using a wide array of sources - including long-closed court martial records, psychiatric and personnel files, unit war diaries, films, and oral histories - Paul Jackson relates the struggle of queer servicemen of all ranks and branches of the Canadian military to fit in to avoid losing their careers and reputations. He argues that even though homosexual men were often accepted and popular within their units, if they were accused of homosexual behaviour, they were subjected to psychiatric assessments, courts-martial proceedings, prison terms, and dishonourable discharges. An influential and eye-opening study, the author has updated this critically acclaimed work with a new preface that considers depictions of soldiers serving in the war in Afghanistan and the continued silence about homosexual servicemen and women.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Military Fiction

376 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2004

About the author

Paul^Jackson

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Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Jackson divides his book into two halves. The first three chapters investigate the institutional treatment of queer men, focusing on policy-makers, law, and medical regulators. The next three chapters turn to the voices of queer men themselves to understand their experiences on the home front, overseas, and the impact of queerness on unit cohesion. Jackson demonstrates how inconsistent military policies, shaped by occasionally competing for medical and moral definitions of homosexuality, and the military’s need for competent men meant that many men’s queerness was overlooked by other servicemen or attributed to an external factor such as alcohol or inexperience. Of course, Jackson also illustrates how queer men’s outings and subsequent punishment were often humiliating and socially debilitating. However, along the same lines, military courts were careful to control when homosexuality was brought up. Indeed, a man on trial for another crime bringing up homosexuality could threaten the heroic and masculine image of the military by making homosexuality appear pervasive. Jackson concludes by explaining just as men’s experiences in the military during the war varied, so too did their experiences after the war varies from a journey of self-acceptance to marrying women and having children to being “exposed as perverts” (p. 477).

I think one particular weakness is Jackson’s almost complete ignoring of the role of religion. While he occasionally notes that Christian ideals helped to shape views on sexuality, these descriptions do not provide an analysis of theological underpinnings in Canada’s various churches, the relationship between the Christian churches and the military during the war, and the role of religion (not only Christianity) in shaping soldiers and officers. Considering Jackson’s reference to George Chauncey’s research, who has published on the role of Christian brotherhood and sexuality in the navy during World War One, it is overall an unfortunate omission that could have provided another angle of institutional and individual comparison.

[Michael Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Popular narratives, memoirs, and social history texts generally ignore the experience (and indeed, the presence) of gay men in the military. This academic treatment of the subject is a necessary corrective. Drawn from transcripts of courts martial, interviews, oral histories, and psychiatric or personnel files, Jackson teases apart the attitudes and actions of the powers that be - and how these often contrasted with perspectives of the men on the ground. An interesting and important recovered piece of gay history.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting - very technical, very well researched. Maybe a bit dryer than I thought it might be, but a really interesting study.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jackson's book looks at the history of homosexuality in the Canadian military during World War II. Based the records of court martials, military files & interviews with former members of the military the book contextualizes the experience of gay men & lesbians both during & after the war.

"In all three branches of the Canadian military, contradictory anti-homosexual policies made queer men vulnerable to discipline and punishment. Medical policy required the immediate discharge of homosexuals as 'military misfits.' Under military law, servicemen were court-martialled and imprisoned for homosexual indecency." 6

"Historians have identified the late nineteenth century as a watershed in the history of sexuality. British sociologist Mary McIntosh first described 'the homosexual' as filling a social role unique to the modern world. Foucault expanded on that notion, describing how nineteenth-century legal and medical authorities assumed power over sexual categories through the process of defining them. By prosecuting homosexual acts and describing the type of person disposed to commit them, these new regulatory regimes facilitated the emergence of a minority that came to define itself in sexual terms. Prior to this, the homosexual did not have a coherent sexual identity. As many scholars have argued, sexuality can be conceived in countless ways, the gender of the object of desire being only one possibility. Nevertheless, in the twentieth-first century, sexual orientation has become a master category of identity.
Many historians feel that this account of the emergence of modern gay communities gives too central a position to the regulators. Regardless of what the experts were theorizing and whom the courts were prosecuting homosexual communities created themselves in the course of modern industrialization and urbanization. Historians John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman see the medical model of homosexuality gaining influence in American society at the same time that same-sex practices were becoming more widespread in the late nineteenth century. Historian, George Chauncey argues that the gay life that arose in New York at the turn of the century was self-generated and self-sustaining..." 11-12

"While ultimately, after the Second World War, a homosexual minority developed largely as a result of the policing of sexuality, the earlier targets of this campaign were more readily understood as men who had violated moral laws...When homosexual encounters were seen as a moral offence, the active partner was generally deemed the most culpable, since it was his sexual pleasure (it was commonly assumed) that was being gratified. However, when judged through the lens of gender, the active partner (the one who inserted his penis in anal intercourse or received oral satisfaction) was less guilty. The true homosexual increasingly came to be seen by military authorities as not responsible for his actions, and therefore as less guilty." 13

"Contrary to procedures in the American army, recruits were never asked if they were homosexual." 34

"In NOvember 1942 the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) developed a classification system of psychiatric disorders that identified homosexuals as psychopathic and a threat to the military. This was the first mention of homosexuals as a class requiring special attention." 35

[Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty mixed bag. Quite a bit about the military as an institution and how it conceived of and dealt with homosexuality among its ranks, which was interesting but for me was more in depth on that subject than I needed (a lot of discussion of courts martial in 1941 and how they compare to courts martial in 1944, and for what I wanted from this book, it kind of dragged on.) The actual accounts of and from queer members of the military was absolutely great and was an illuminating look into how Canadian men conceived of sexuality at the time.

[Scott]

This may be the most boring book I have ever read. But then I have not read very many Queen's University masters theses.