Beginning in World War II the military developed a discriminatory system that forced homosexual soldiers to hide who they were and punished them for telling the truth.
Over the years, the military has given different reasons for treating homosexuals as if they were a separate group. At first they were labelled (sic) criminals, then mentally ill, then security risks, and in 1993 they were considered threats to unit cohesion. Underlying these shifting rationales was an unchallenged contempt for homosexuals and a belief that they contaminated society with their very presence.
This is the story of the men and women of World War II who were the first targets of a military policy that sought to identify, reject, and discharge them as "undesirables."
based on the book COMING OUT UNDER FIRE The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two by 'ALLAN BÉRUBÉ'
Pat Bond Medical Technician, U.S. Women's Army Corps Interview date: September 30, 1990 Pat Bond, born Patricia Childers, joined the WACS in 1945. She escaped the military's anti-gay persecution by entering a marriage of convenience with a gay man and passed as heterosexual. After the war, Bond settled in the burgeoning gay community of post-war San Francisco where she began a successful acting career on stage. In 1978, she appeared in the landmark documentary about gay people, 'Word is Out.' Bond passed away at the age of 65 on December 14, 1990, three months after filming this interview. Duration: 10:15
Max Cole (as Ernest Max Cole) Communications and Boat Officer in the Amphibious Force, U.S. Navy Interview date: March 29, 1993 Ernest Max Cole led the first wave of boats into the enemy shore of Rendova in the New Georgia Islands. During the invasion of Iwo Jima, his boyfriend was sent ashore where the beach "was absolutely alive with fire." When he returned along with other casualties, Cole, not wanting to reveal his affections, "didn't dare go to him because I was afraid I'd cry... The next day I saw him, and I put my arm around him and I was under control again. How glad I was to see him!" Cole is now retired and works as a radio announcer for the Riverside Church in New York City. Duration 6:14
Elwood Burton Gerrits Pharmacist Mate Third Class, U.S. Navy Interview date: June 17, 1993 In 1943, nineteen-year-old Burt Gerrits enlisted in the Navy at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota recruitment center. He was assigned as an aide in the psychiatric ward of the Treasure Island Naval Base in San Francisco. Gerrits is now retired from 35 years of public school teaching and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he settled after World War II. Duration: 7:50
Nicolai Gioscia Psychiatrist, U.S. Army Interview date: February 27, 1993 During routine examinations at a neuro-psychiatric military hospital, Dr. Nicholai Gioscia and his staff inserted tongue depressors into patients' throats. They found the 89% of those who had been diagnosed as sexual psychopaths and who had admitted fellatio did not show a gag reflex. Gioscia concluded that his "gag reflex test" would be "valuable in detecting the malingerer," a person attempting to avoid service by professing homosexuality, whether or not it was true. Gioscia, however, never applied his findings to practical use during the war. Dr. Gioscia passed away on May 25, 2000 at the age of 96. He was an active member of SAGE, Senior action in a Gay Environment, in New York City. See 'Historical Documents' on this DVD to read Gioscia's full report. Duration: 8:03
Edna Rostow Research Associate, Dept of Psychiatry, Yale University Student Mental Health Clinic Interview date: May 1, 1993 In 1944, Edna Rostow and Yale University student clinic director, Dr. Clements Fry, completed reports on gays in the military for the Office of Scientific Research and Development. After studying the records of 183 servicemen, which included 46 homosexual soldiers, they found gay soldiers no better or worse than others...and that many "performed well in various military jobs," including combat. They challenged the military's double standard: "Should a man be discharged...for being picked up on leave for homosexual activity with a willing partner, when a heterosexual episode in similar circumstances would not be grounds for discharge?" Rostow and Fry's reports were filed in 1945 and remained classified until 1977, when a federal judge ordered their release along with other studies that questioned the military's policy on homosexuals. Rostow is now retired and living in Portugal. Duration: 4:35
"Diary of a New York Lady" © 1933 by Dorothy Parker Excerpts used with permission of Penguin Books, U.S.A. Inc. & Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd.