admiring the stockings. 1940âs.
#[40S COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER VOICE] WHATâS BETTER THAN THIS? GALS BEING PALS
Fun fact: Though being gay in the 40s sucked, being gay in the military was easier, and pretty common. There were apparently, at one point in time time so many lesbians in the military that when they tried to crack down on it, the girls wrote back and said âLook I can give you the names, but youâll lose some of your best officers, and half your nurses and secretaries.â And they pretty much shut up about it unless you were especially bad at subtlety. (Source: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. A good source for gay history from 1900s onwards.)
Sergeant Phelps worked for General Eisenhower. Four decades after Eisenhower had defeated the Axis powers, Phelps recalled an extraordinary event. One day the general told her, âIâm giving you an order to ferret those lesbians out.â Weâre going to get rid of them.â
âI looked at him and then I looked at his secretary. who was standing next to me, and I said, âWell, sir, if the general pleases, sir, Iâll be happy to do this investigation for you. But you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.â
âAnd he kind of was taken aback a bit. And then this woman standing next to me said, âSir, if the general pleases, you must be aware that Sergeant Phelpsâs name may be second, but mine will be first.â
âThen I looked at him, and I said, âSir, youâre right. Theyâre lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the general is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all of the driversâevery woman in the WAC detachmentâand there were about nine hundred and eighty something of usâthen Iâll be happy to make the list. But I think the general should be aware that among those women are the most highly decorated women in the war. There have been no cases of illegal pregnancies. There have been no cases of AWOL. There have been no cases of misconduct. And as a matter of fact, every six months since weâve been here, sir, the general has awarded us a commendation for meritorious service.â
âAnd he said, âForget the order.â
- The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America
Iâve reblogged this before but it didnât have these comments and HOLY HOT DAMN DID IT NEED THEM.
So, when someone sits down to write a fiction about Women commandos, and a Dudebro steps in to say âHuh, that is so unrealistic huh.âÂ
Harold⌠oh, HaroldâŚsit down, shut up, and stay out of our way.
History is infinitely gayer than a lot of people want to admit <3
