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

Homosexuality and military service have made strange bedfellows over the last hundred years. Military leaders have generally seen homosexuals as unmanly, immoral, and – according to the U.S. military – a threat to unit cohesion, a claim that continues to prop up the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Struggles for equal rights have not been limited to the United States: during the Second World War, the Canadian military was acutely concerned with homosexuality and, as the war progressed, senior military brass became increasingly determined to rid the services of those engaged in “disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind.”