Australian Army Journal

HISTORY
‘A Homosexual Institution’:
Same-sex Desire in the Army During
World War II
they have been part of a broader international quest with important studies
published on the United States (US) 7 and Canada 8 and forthcoming work on
the British 9 and Australian 10 experience. More recently, military historians have
also turned their attention to the culture of the armed forces, looking at the lived
experience of soldiers, sailors and airmen. They, too, have started to find evidence of
same-sex desire and behaviour in memoirs, newspapers, official reports and records,
oral histories, and so on. 11
In this article, we will survey what is known about homosexuality in the Australian military.
To narrow our focus, we will examine the memories and memoirs of homosexual
men in World War II as well as the responses of Australian Army officials and other
servicemen who encountered same-sex behaviour and identity. We will show what
no-one could ever seriously have doubted — that homosexuals were present in
the armed forces. But we are interested, too, in how a vilified, marginalised and
criminalised minority made lives for themselves in the services and, for all the risks
and penalties they faced, forged lives characterised by pleasure and conviviality
as much as by fear and victimisation. Three forces were at work, each shaping
the homosexual sub-cultures in their own ways — the commanding echelons,
homosexual men and women, and the broader mass of servicemen and women.
The contemporary significance of a discussion of the Army’s efforts to grapple with
the issue of homosexuality needs hardly be laboured. Sex, gender and sexuality
have always been the subject of lively debates within and around the military —
from the age-old problem of the on and off-duty sexual behaviour of servicemen,
through to the more recent process of creating a place for women as front-line
fighters. Episodes of scandalous sexual behaviour revealed since 2011
(the Skype Scandal, the ‘Jedi Council’) have been presented as both a public
relations nightmare and a serious disciplinary problem. In 2011, the public was
made aware of a virulently homophobic Facebook campaign directed by serving
personnel against gay colleagues, which was treated with a disturbing lack of
seriousness by the authorities. 12
But there is another side that needs to be taken into account. Both the reputation
of the forces and their efficient functioning are regarded as threatened by such
behaviour and, increasingly, very public action is being taken against those accused
of sexism and homophobia. In February 2013 uniformed personnel were permitted
to march in the Mardi Gras parade. In May 2013 the Australian Defence Force
Academy launched its LGBTI support network with a public celebration attended
by senior officers of all three services, as well as cadets and Defence civilians. 13
Australian Army Journal
Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 26