Queer History & World War II

1. Queer History & World War II

2. The Holocaust • Paragraph 175: • Provision of German Criminal Code outlawing homosexual acts between • Men. • In 1935, the Nazis broadened the law and thousands of gay men died in concentration • camps. Between 5 and 15,000 gay men were sent to concentration camps, where they were forced to wear the pink triangle. Most sent to the camps died there. • In 1945, gay prisoners were not freed from the concentration camps. Rather, they were • made to serve out their sentence under Paragraph 175. • Amended various times, including in 1969 when the government changed the law to stipulate that the age of consent was 21, Paragraph 175 was repealed in 1988. • Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySlMFFJQcO0

3. Hayes Code, 1930 • Passed in 1930, this set of restrictions outlawed any reference to ‘sexual perversion’ in movies. • Starting in July, 1934 all films were required to have a certificate stating that they adhered to the standards of the code before being released. • For almost two full decades, until individual film directors challenged the code in the mid-1950s, there could be no mention of homosexuality. • The Celluloid Closet, a documentary, details the history of homosexuality in films (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_vrb4-6_0)

4. World War II • Blue Discharge: • Defined neither as “honorable” • or “dishonorable,” but “undesirable” • Removed homosexual members from the ranks of the military • It was applied disproportionately to African Americans • 9,000 blue discharges issued to homosexuals during WWII • After the war, queer people who received the blue discharge • experienced discrimination in hiring and were refused the • benefits of the G.I. Bill • WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service: • Women, many of them lesbians, in the Navy • WACs (Women’s Army Core): Women, many of them • lesbians, in the army. Coming Out Under Fire, by Allan Berube

5. What is Queer Labor History? • Kinds of work performed by queer people • Discrimination faced at work. Resistance to Discrimination. • Distinction between what it means to be working-class and queer and what it • means to be middle- or upper-class and queer. • Involvement in the labor movement, relationship between workers.

6. Lesbians & Factory Work “Rosie the Riveter” Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55NCElsbjeQ Female Factory Workers During WWII Rosie the Riveter

7. Queer Labor History Allan Bérubé • Self-Taught Community Historian. Scholar-Activist. • 1960s conscientious objector and anti-war activist. • Wrote THE book on gay people and World War II. • Wrote about the relationship between sexuality, • class, and race. • He died in December 2007. When he died, • he was in the middle of writing a book about the • “radical, intterracial, and queer-friendly Marine Cooks • and Stewards Union” from the 1930s-1950s. Allan Berube San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project

8. “No Race-Baiting, Red-Baiting, or Queer-Baiting!” Marine Cooks and Stewards Union Anti-Communist Demonstrators Protest Against the Union The union fought against racism

9. Marine Cooks and Stewards Union • Formed by white men in San Francisco in 1901 to “protect” their jobs from “inferior and alien races,” by which they meant Japanese and Chinese seaman. • The union was transformed in the 1930s into a radical, integrated union. • It represented a variety of people who worked at sea, including service staff on passenger liners (janitors, bellhops, cooks, waiters, hairdressers, etc.) • Accused of being communist, and kicked out of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO – parent union) in 1950. • Mocked by its enemies as “A third red, a third black, and a third queer!” – destroyed by mid-1950s because of red-baiting and homophobia.