The Greatest Generation Had Queer Veterans, Too: Biden's pardon of gay soldiers is just one part of

[riversedge]

The Greatest Generation Had Queer Veterans, Too
Biden’s pardon of gay soldiers is just one part of acknowledging untold stories.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/29/biden-pardon-soldiers-gay-veterans/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921




June 29, 2024, 6:00 AM
By Luke Schleusener, the president and co-founder of Out in National Security.



It has been nearly three decades since Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, cemented the fame of the World War II generation. Popular screen adaptations—such as Band of Brothers and The Pacific—have perpetuated an idealized image of bravery, masculinity, and virtue. It is easy for the United States to wander into the nostalgia trap of what Elizabeth Samet calls “the good war.” Fewer and fewer veterans of the “good war” are still with us, and the imagined past and presumptions increasingly shape our image of the war and the lessons that we draw from it

Link to tweet

Two male soldiers wearing WWII-era formal uniforms embrace in this black-and-white photograph. Palm trees are visible in the background.
An image of two U.S. soldiers during World War II from the 1994 documentary Coming Out Under Fire. Deep Focus Productions

[Vogon_Glory]

1. I may be straight, but I've got a lot of admiration for gay vets

We’ve heard stories of gay men and women who served and were busted (Many got dishonorably discharged at best), but there must have been tens or even hundreds of thousands who enlisted who were careful, lucky, or grimly realized that they weren’t getting any action until after they were discharged.

I wonder how many of today’s social-reactionary Religious Right loudmouths could have remained celibate from boot camp til after they were discharged?

[Vitruvius]

2. Funny how nobody's ever upset about "gays in the military" when there's a shooting war going on.

And purging them only gets going again once the war is won.

P.S: Historically, gay soldiers have done pretty well -- from Alexander the Great down to the present.