I was Googling "famous homosexual soldiers" to see if I was able...

[NNN0LHI]

...to find the answer to a poster who was wondering how many gay soldiers had paid the ultimate price in combat defending this country. Instead I found this. Its kind of interesting. I am not vouching for its veracity and have not read the entire thing but my wife is calling, the raviolis are on the table. Time to eat. Here is the essay.

Don

http://www.infotrue.com/pagethr.html

WAS "THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES" A HOMOSEXUAL KRISTALLNACHT?

WAS "THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES" A HOMOSEXUAL KRISTALLNACHT? by Rick Landman Just as the Holocaust showed what happens when overt anti-Semitism goes unpunished, it also showed how socially sanctioned homophobia set the stage for murder years before Kristallnacht. In order to fully understand how Hitler reached the point where he could kill millions of Jews without any mass protest, one must understand how early Nazi anti-minority persecution was used to terrorize the general public. But for years this part of history has been closeted. Even Martin Niemoller's famous quote concerning how he didn't speak up when they came for the communists, Jews, trade unionists and Catholics, had a very selective memory by leaving out homosexuals. It seems that for over 50 years, the world has had amnesia to this particular brutal part of Nazi history. For not only were homosexuals persecuted before and during the war by the Nazis, but their victims were ignored after the war.

I am not equating the extermination of the Jews with the Nazis desire for the eradication of homosexuality from German life. One cannot equate the planned systematic murder of six million Jews with the killing of 5,000 - 10,000 homosexuals. But if one doesn't acknowledge the homophobic persecution, arrests, deaths, and book burnings, one cannot fully understand how the German people allowed the Nazis to develop policies of mass murder. snip

But as soon as Hitler came to power, repression towards Jews and homosexuals escalated. In 1933, five years before Kristallnacht, one of Hitler's first acts was the closing of all homosexual bars, cabarets and even the Institute for Sexual Science itself that Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld founded. The famous photograph of the book burnings of May 1933, not only included books by Jewish authors, but it also included the entirety of the Institute's research papers and books.

Then on the weekend of June 28, 1934 (which ironically coincides with the 1969 date of the Gay Uprising at the Stonewall) an event occurred which could be considered the "Gay Kristallnacht". On the "Night of the Long Knives" Hitler ordered 2,000 of his S.A. (many of who were probably heterosexual) to be murdered under the crime of being homosexual. After that weekend, a death penalty was now justified for homosexuals and government sponsored murder became an acceptable practice for eradicating homosexuality. Granted, these first victims were brutal S.A. Nazis, so there is a question whether the event should be commemorated. But like Kristallnacht, that night was one of Hitler's trial balloons testing if the world would protest. On Kristallnacht, Hitler showed the world that he was serious in eliminating the Jews from Europe and on the Night of the Long Knives he showed that he could kill thousands of men under the pretext of homosexuality; and in both cases received no real condemnation from the world's leaders.

In an ironic twist to today's' "Family Value" politicians, Field Marshal Heinrich Himmler created a Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion in the early 1930's, with his own famous "Family Values" campaign. Before the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 (which prevented Jews from participating in normal German society and prevented Jews from marrying "Aryans") the homosexual population was already living as outcasts or hiding in fear.

On June 28, 1934, Hitler showed the world that he could kill homosexuals, send them to prisons or concentration camps. All this while terrorizing the rest of the German people with a sense of moral dignity.

more

[lateo]

1. There is rumor that...

Baron Von Steuben was gay....I say rumor because some people deny that he was gay...I don't know if he was or not.

If he was, America owes its existance to a gay man.

[Bucky]

4. Ah, yes, the plump baron's little "drummer boy"

Almost a cliche, if it weren't true. Later the faux Baron (he was really a discredited drill sergeant with only a tenuous claim to a baronacy and showed up in the US with forged papers "authenticating" his title) turned into something of the reigning queen of New York City's clandestine pederast community.

Among his conquests was the 3rd son of then Vice President John Adams, who threatened to disinherit the boy if he didn't quit associating with that New York crowd and return to Boston to get married. The young man did so, was dreadfully miserable and became Adams's second son to drink himself into debt and death.

Do you still doubt that this country was founded on Christian values?

[lateo]

8. I just can't believe that...

The "Baron" was gay. America surely wouldn't want to have this large of a debt to a gay man.

[Bucky]

10. He-ha. Of course they didn't have the word OR concept of "gay" back then.

Pederasty and sodomy were considered immoral among the few who knew what those things really were. But the notion of gayness was hardly what he hold today. It was more considered along the lines of a really disgusting vice that gentle folks just didn't discuss in polite company. It would not have been a social distinction or even considered a threat to family values (another phrase not quite in coinage yet then, too.)

[NNN0LHI]

11. You got me thinking and Googleing and you may be wrong on both counts?

>>>"He-ha. Of course they didn't have the word OR concept of "gay" back then."<<<

gay (gâ)
adj., gay·er, gay·est.
Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.
Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.
Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.
Given to social pleasures.
Dissolute; licentious.
n.
A person whose sexual orientation is to persons of the same sex.
A man whose sexual orientation is to men: an alliance of gays and lesbians.

Word origins
The word gay has had a sexual orientation meaning since at least the nineteenth century, and possibly earlier. Sometimes, specifically extracted histories of word origins are incomplete and not useful to communicating modern meanings of socioculturally potent words.


Noel Coward's 1929 musical Bitter Sweet has the first uncontested use of the word: in the song "Green Carnation", four overdressed, 1890s dandies sing:

Pretty boys, witty boys, You may sneer
At our disintegration.
Haughty boys, naughty boys,
Dear, dear, dear!
Swooning with affectation...
And as we are the reason
For the "Nineties" being gay,
We all wear a green carnation.

Coward uses the "gay nineties" as a double entendre. The song title alludes to the gay playwright Oscar Wilde, who famously wore a green carnation himself.

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=9497mozno9vy?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Gay&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc02a

>>>Pederasty and sodomy were considered immoral among the few who knew what those things really were. But the notion of gayness was hardly what he hold today. It was more considered along the lines of a really disgusting vice that gentle folks just didn't discuss in polite company. It would not have been a social distinction or even considered a threat to family values (another phrase not quite in coinage yet then, too.)<<<

The Holocaust past, present (and future?).

Prior to the Third Reich, Berlin was considered a liberal city, with many gay bars, nightclubs and cabarets. There were even many drag bars where tourists straight and gay would enjoy female impersonation acts. There had also been a fairly significant gay rights movement under Magnus Hirschfeld around the turn of the century. However the advancements of the gay community were soon erased with the coming of power of the Nazi Party.

http://www.posh-uk.org.uk/holocaust/gaysinnazigermany.html

[applegrove]

2. And Lincoln of course! n/t

[slor]

3. The head of the SA, ernst rohm, was gay n/t

[Pobeka]

5. I think it was the Spartan army that encouraged homosexual activity.

This was because the soldiers were more aggressive at defending their peers when they literally had physical relationships to protect.

Might have been some other Greek or Roman army, but it was one of the famous one, who our military holds in high esteem.

[NewJeffCT]

6. I think that was the Sacred Band of Thebes

I don't think the Spartans were as blatant as the Thebans, who I believe went into battle naked, or wearing very little...

[Coexist]

7. Baby steps to the Concentration Camps

In re: this quote: "I am not equating the extermination of the Jews with the Nazis desire for the eradication of homosexuality from German life. One cannot equate the planned systematic murder of six million Jews with the killing of 5,000 - 10,000 homosexuals. But if one doesn't acknowledge the homophobic persecution, arrests, deaths, and book burnings, one cannot fully understand how the German people allowed the Nazis to develop policies of mass murder. snip"

Serial killers don't start out with adult humans. I have read accounts that say they begin by torturing insects, reptiles and small mammals. You don't just get up and say, "I am going to commit genocide" you start by seeing what small things you can get away with.

[roguevalley]

9. Read "The Hidden Hitler". He is gay too.