Timely story. "They dedicated their youth to defending a country that was often reluctant to accept the way they lived their lives - even at the risk of getting shot. And now the incredible stories of the gay men who fought in the two world wars has been revealed in a new book on the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality. These include the love letters of First World War sweethearts, working-class Ralph Hall and middle-class soldier Montague Glover, who began a long-term relationship in the 1930s. Both men served in the Army from 1914-18, while Hall joined in the RAF during World War Two, and the couple reunited during peacetime and risked imprisonment for their relationship up until 1967. Due to manpower shortages, gay men were unofficially allowed to serve in the armed forces, and around 250,000 of some 5 million British men who during the Second World War are estimated to have been gay or bisexual. This is despite the law saying gay recruits could be dismissed with a dishonourable discharge for the mere fact of being gay, and imprisoned or even shot for 'gross indecency' if they engaged in homosexual acts. A wave of convictions followed the close of the war in 1945, including of the Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing, who killed himself in 1954 after being found guilty of homosexual activity two years earlier. But on July 27, 1967, homosexual acts between two men over the age of 21 in private were legalised under the Sexual Offences Act." Letters reveal the stories of gay soldiers in world wars | Daily Mail Online
