"While on military training during World War Two, Gilbert Bradley was in love. He exchanged hundreds of letters with his sweetheart - who merely signed with the initial "G". But more than 70 years later, it was discovered that G stood for Gordon, and Gilbert had been in love with a man."
I came across this piece and remembered our class discussion about all these destroyed letters and diaries about lives of homosexuals and how these primary sources help historians better understand the LGBT community in the past.
We read about all those horrible experiences and repressions, but there were also stories about love and great lives. A gay activist commented that "There is a gay history and it isn't always negative and tearful," he says. "So many stories are about arrests - Oscar Wilde, Reading Gaol and all those awful, awful stories.But despite all the awful circumstances, gay men and lesbians managed to rise above it all and have fascinating and good lives despite everything."
By the way, one protagonist of our story moved to California later in his life and became a well-known horse trainer. He hired Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Robert Kennedy.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38932955
These letters and diaries are so important to us in order to understand what life was like for gays and lesbians during this time period. I found this article (http://www.historyextra.com/feature/same-side-homosexuals-during-second-world-war) about Ian Gleed, a flight lieutenant during WWII. I thought it was so interesting how he wrote a memoir called "Arise to Conquer," about his time in the war. He created a fictional girlfriend name Pam in his book. However, Gleed was gay. While his memoir gives a "remarkably honest account" of his life, he refuses to acknowledge a very important aspect of his life that influenced him greatly during a time of homophobia and fear among the gay community.
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