Men In Uniform Collection Books 1-2: M/M Gay Erotica

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Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime harassed and dismantled these communities. They also arrested large numbers of gay men under Paragraph 175. Paragraph 175 was the statute of the German criminal code that banned sexual relations between men. During the Nazi period, the police arrested about 100,000 men for allegedly violating this statute. Approximately fifty percent of these men were convicted. In some cases, this led to their imprisonment in concentration camps. Fearing guilt-by-association, already prejudiced fellow prisoners shunned pink triangle prisoners. Pink triangle prisoners were left isolated and powerless within the prisoner hierarchy. Prisoner networks provided tools of survival, such as access to food and clothing, for many camp inmates. The fact that most pink triangle prisoners were German-speakers provided some measure of protection by giving them access to less onerous work details such as administrative positions. Nonetheless, the typically isolated position of these prisoners made their survival much more difficult. An unknown number of pink triangle prisoners died in the concentration camps.

The call for submissions had a few stipulations. In all photos, the subject needed to be seated, the photos needed to be in portrait format at a 5x7 aspect ratio, and we wanted to avoid mirror selfies. There is a great deal of scholarship on the "seated portrait," which we will not go into here, but for our purposes, the requirement had the effect of making the portrait a deliberate act. In that way, the photographer was more likely to consider the messaging and emotional content of the photograph, and how feelings of isolation and loneliness were impacting their lives during the pandemic. The aspect ratio and orientation were chosen for presentational purposes. As curators, we wanted to ensure that the images formed a collection and that changes in the physical dimensions and orientation would not detract from the collective message(s) contained within the collection. Since coming out, I have fought to defeat the very thing that caused me to not come out any sooner: stereotypes. I want to be the gay man that I wish I met when I was younger. I want to prove that the gay community is just as strong and capable as the straight world. If I can make one person's life better, all my efforts and struggles will have been worth it. The hardest people to come out to were my fellow military members. I originally enlisted into the most hyper-masculine program possible, the Naval Special Warfare Program. I enlisted in 2014 to serve a purpose greater than myself. There, instructors and fellow trainees constantly threw homophobic slurs around. I distinctly remember one day when an instructor said, "Oh look at those faggots," and then turned to us saying, "Wait, it's OK to be gay, YOU just can't be gay." These early measures were just the beginning of the Nazi campaign against homosexuality. Nazi actions would escalate in the second half of the 1930s. Escalating the Persecution of Gay Men, 1934–1936 In fall 1934, the Berlin Gestapo (political police) instructed local police forces to send them lists of all men believed to have been engaged in same-sex behavior. Police in various parts of Germany had been keeping such lists for many years. However, centralizing this list in the hands of the Berlin Gestapo was new. In addition, the Gestapo specified that local offices should be sure to note if these men were members of Nazi organizations and if they had any prior criminal convictions under Paragraph 175. These lists have come to be known as “pink lists,” although this was not what the Nazis or the police called them.

This being said, fetish exploration is not a free-for-all. There is a trepidatious line between fetishizing balloons and fetishizing blood. That vague line exists throughout the world of kink, which is why the motto “safe, sane, and consensual” should be strictly adhered to as you explore the things that turn you on — which, I must stress, are worth exploring. Your birthdays just got a lot more interesting.

The British military actively recruits gay men and lesbians, all three services have deployed recruiting teams to gay pride events, and punishes any instance of intolerance or bullying. The Royal Navy advertises for recruits in gay magazines and has allowed gay sailors to hold civil partnership ceremonies on board ships and, since 2006, to march in full naval uniform at gay pride marches. British Army and Royal Air Force personnel could march but had to wear civilian clothes until 2008, now all military personnel are permitted to attend Gay Pride marches in uniform. [7] One organization promoting such theories, its sense of superiority elucidated by its very name, was the Community of the Special. Founded by the writer Adolf Brand, who had also started the world’s first regular gay publication, Der Eigene (“The Unique”), in 1896, the Community of the Special aimed to create “an elite vanguard of superior German men,” according to Beachy, “who would lead [a] renewal” of German nationalism. “Implicit was a strong suspicion of Weimar democracy and Reichstag debate, as well as latent and often explicit anti-Semitism,” as non-traditionally masculine homosexuals were conflated with lesbians, Jews, Communists, and Social Democrats as enemies of the German volk. In 1923, when campaigners were advocating the repeal of Paragraph 175 (the Wilhelmine-era law proscribing homosexual conduct, which the Nazis would later use to persecute gay men), the Community of the Special abstained—on the grounds that it did not want to divide conservative nationalist forces on this issue of sexuality as France began its postwar occupation of the Ruhr valley. A sexual orientation in which a woman is primarily sexually or romantically attracted to other women. A descriptor for people who do not conform to stereotypical appearances, behaviors, or traits associated with their sex assigned at birth. Many Germans welcomed the less restrictive social, political, and cultural climate in the Weimar Republic. Many gay men embraced this new culture. Some groups more actively and openly advocated for decriminalizing sexual relations between men. Among them were the Scientific Humanitarian Committee ( Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee , WhK, established in 1897 ) and the League for Human Rights ( Bund für Menschenrecht , BfM, established in the 1920s). Such groups cooperated with other reform-minded groups that advocated for new legal approaches to prostitution, birth control, and abortion.

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Gay men responded to Nazi persecution in different ways. Not all gay men made the same decisions. Nor did they all have the same choices. For example, gay men categorized by the Nazi regime as Aryan had far more options than those categorized as Jews or Roma (Gypsies). Jewish and Romani gay men—above all—faced persecution for racial reasons. Human Rights Watch conducted a total of 144 interviews, including with 73 secondary school students or recent graduates who affirmatively identified as LGBT or questioning, 25 students or recent graduates who did not affirmatively identify as LGBT or questioning, and 46 parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, service providers, and experts on education. Of the LGBT students, 33 identified as gay, 12 identified as transgender girls, 10 identified as bisexual girls, 6 identified as lesbians, 4 identified only as “LGBT,” 3 identified as transgender boys, 2 identified as bisexual boys, 2 identified as questioning, and 1 identified as a panromantic girl. But some leaders, as well as rank and file members, of the Nazi Party held attitudes that were more varied and ambivalent. There were known gay men in the Nazi movement, most notably Ernst Röhm. Röhm used the word “ gleichgeschlechtlich ,” same-sex oriented, to describe himself. He was the leader of the SA ( Sturmabteilung, commonly called Stormtroopers) , a violent and radical Nazi paramilitary. The current policy was accepted at the lower ranks first, with many senior officers worrying for their troops without a modern acceptance of homosexuality that their personnel had grown up with, one Brigadier resigned but with little impact. Since then change support at the senior level has grown. General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff (head of the Army), told members of the Army-sponsored Fourth Joint Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Matters that homosexuals were welcome to serve in the Army. In a speech to the conference in 2008, the first of its kind by any Army chief, General Sir Richard said that respect for gays, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual officers and soldiers was now "a command responsibility" and was vital for "operational effectiveness". [8] By the end of April, we had received over 160 submissions from men ranging in age between 22 and 67 years old. From Tokyo to Phoenix, and Melbourne to Buenos Aires, we had submissions from 102 cities in 28 countries. The photographers themselves communicated a range of feelings and sensations through their photos. Some focused on the constraints of space, while others chose to present defiance and resilience in their images. Sex and sexuality are components of a number of submissions, but even in these works, there is a sense of resignation and vulnerability. The locations range from outdoor spaces to throughout the home, including, a number of images taken in bathrooms. The range of participants was wide, from professional photographers to those who just used their smartphones to take their picture. These frank portraits of what it's like to live through the coronavirus crisis are both honest and revealing about how it has affected these subjects. The idea behind the collection was to show that gay men are affected by the crisis in a similar way to everyone else but more so. Living lives which are often fragmented between conventional work conditions and their private lives leaves many gay men without the traditional support mechanisms of heterosexuals and this shows through in the imagery.

These policies are particularly difficult for transgender students, who are typically treated as their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity. But they can also be challenging for students who are gender non-conforming, and feel most comfortable expressing themselves or participating in activities that the school considers inappropriate for their sex. In general, gay communities were more accepted in Germany’s major cities. Smaller towns and rural areas tended to be less accepting. In Berlin, the gay community was particularly prominent. But even in bigger cities, such as Munich, gay communities were not always welcome. Nazi Attitudes and the Case of Ernst Röhm By the end of 1936, conditions were in place for the Nazi regime to intensify its campaign against homosexuality. The Peak of the Nazi Campaign Against Homosexuality

We have seen postwar Japan stumble into a spiritual vacuum, preoccupied only with its economic prosperity, unmindful of its national foundations, losing its national spirit, seeking trivialities without looking to fundamentals, and falling into makeshift expediency and hypocrisy. The British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force all require new recruits to undergo Equality and Diversity training [9] [10] [11] and have a unified diversity strategy that is set by the Ministry of Defence – and which recognises everyone's unique contribution, their talents and experience. Core Values of Commitment, Courage, Discipline, Respect for Others, Integrity and Loyalty are their basic standards. The rainbow metaphor is about reflecting the spectrum of queer experiences—not reducing ourselves to a flat set of predetermined, elementary colors that everyone can agree are very nice. Being queer is not always nice. Being queer is complicated. Being queer—and appearing queer—requires a rich and varied palette so you can signal to the right parties that you’re down to clown, while still also prioritizing keeping yourself safe. You don’t have to be wearing seven-color, primary-hued rainbows head to toe to be visibly queer. And you’re not required to identify yourself to all in such a way that might compromise your safety.

Eric tells us: “Authority, power, heroism, strength, or simply the aesthetics of clothing and accessories, the enhancement of the male body — all these mixed feelings at the sight of a man in uniform awake our imagination and strata of our homoerotic cultural unconscious.My struggle came with growing up in the closet and learning to love myself. I built a wall and never let anyone through. It was really tough at first, leading me to very dark places mentally. Reading coming out stories like the one I am writing — and how people were greeted with love and open arms — was what kept me going. No offense to the many, many guilty parties, but we as queer people are better than this. We deserve better than this.