Britain's Roswell

Today is World UFO Day. Whether you believe in the existence of flying saucers and interplanetary aliens or not you can be sure that someone you have met will claim to have seen one.

US Intelligence stated earlier this month that the much anticipated report on UFOs, due to be released soon, will say that there’s no evidence of Earth having been visited by aliens, but it doesn’t rule it out. A few weeks ago it was revealed that a telescope in Canada had been picking up a series of intense bursts of radio waves since 2007 that some scientists (not working on that telescope) have claimed come from an intelligent extraterrestrial source.

Almost two years ago I wrote about Ralph Noyes (1923-1998), a gay Ministry of Defence (MoD) official who became an authority on crop circles. I mentioned he was also head of Defence Secretariat 8, the MoD department that dealt with UFO sightings.

You can guarantee that the name Roswell will crop up in most discussions of UFOs and aliens. It you’re not aware of the name, Roswell is the place in New Mexico, USA, where a US Army Air Force weather balloon crashed in 1947. That’s the official version. It is also claimed to have been an alien spacecraft, and that its alien occupants were taken to the airbase. This has led to various conspiracy theories, not to mention dozens of very profitable books and movies.

In 1980 the UK had its own “Roswell” incident. With Ralph Noyes’ experience dealing with reports of UFOs at the MoD and his subsequent involvement in ufology he was called upon to provide comments on any UFO encounter. His opinion was highly valued.

The British Roswell, as it has been called, has been given several names – the Bentwaters Case, the Woodbridge Case – but the most often used is the Rendlesham case. As the map below illustrates all names are equally valid.

As far as the “facts” are concerned the most important piece of evidence is the memorandum submitted to the MoD on 13th January 1981 by Charles Halt. At the time Halt was a Lt.-Col. in the US Air Force and Deputy Base Commander of the USAF detachments at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. He was an eye witness to some of the events.

At about 3 a.m. on 26th December 1980 patrolmen at the east gate of RAF Woodbridge saw lights in the adjoining Rendlesham Forest and they thought an aircraft may have crashed. Patrolmen who were sent to investigate saw a glowing object that illuminated a large part of the forest. It was metallic and triangular, about 3 meters across as its base and 2 meters in height. There was a pulsing red light on top and blue lights underneath. It seemed to be hovering, but as the patrolmen approached the object retreated into the trees and disappeared.

In the light of day some depressions in the ground were found over the place where the object seemed to hover. But more was to come. In the late night of 29th December several USAF personnel, including Lt.-Col. Halt, saw a pulsing red light in the forest. It seemed to split into five pieces and disappeared. Then three “star-like” objects appeared in the sky, darting around, flashing red, green and blue lights. They were observed for several hours.

Much more detail has been added over the years by other witnesses, journalists and investigators, some true, some false, but I needn’t go into them today. The Rendlesham Case is well documented on the internet if you’d like to learn more. I am also aware of a previous incident involving RAF Woodbridge in 1956, but that is also not pertinent today.

So what was Ralph Noyes’ opinion of the Rendlesham Case? It should be noted that he had left the MoD by 1980 so wouldn’t have had access to any documents filed at the time and wasn’t involved in an official investigation. While at the MoD he couldn’t question or criticise decisions made by his superiors, but once he had left he was able to pose those questions freely.

The Rendlesham Case became public three years after the incident. A US Freedom of Information request revealed Lt.-Col. Halt’s memorandum, and the British media exploded with their own investigations. Ralph Noyes examined the available documents and came to the conclusion that the Rendlesham Case was a genuine UFO encounter. He was concerned that the MoD officially declared the case as “of no defence interest”, meaning they didn’t think it was important and nothing more than mistaken identity of some natural phenomenon.

In 1985 Ralph wrote to David Alton, a prominent Liberal Party MP, who raised the Rendlesham verdict with the Secretary of State for Defence, Conservative Party MP Michael Heseltine. Alton said that Ralph’s concerns over the official investigation “merit a reply”. Neither Ralph nor David Alton got a satisfactory response.

Also in 1985 Ralph published a novel called “A Secret Property” which he acknowledged was based on the Rendlesham Case. This led to speculation that the novel told the “truth” of a government cover-up and conspiracy – fuel to the fire for any ufology conspiracy theorist.

A couple of years later Ralph wrote an essay in “The UFO Report”, a collection of UFO essays edited by Timothy Good. Ralph’s essay, “UFO Lands in Suffolk – And That’s Official”, was a direct quote from the headline in the News of the World (a discredited and discontinued Sunday tabloid newspaper) that was splashed all over its front page when Rendlesham was made public.

In his essay Ralph emphasised the importance of the Rendlesham Case in British ufology. He went on to analyse Halt’s memorandum to the MoD and aspects of supporting and sceptic theories behind the incident. His conclusion was that Rendlesham Forest was visited by an unidentified object that was seen by reliable witnesses. He ruled out the most often quoted source for the pulsing lights – a lighthouse that was about 5 miles away – and believed that the MoD did not treat the incident with the seriousness it deserved.

Theories about the Rendlesham Case still abound. Lt.-Col. Charles Case, now retired, continues to talk about the incidents he witnessed. Whatever you think about the case it will remain one of the most mysterious and important UFO encounters in British history, made more significant by the opinion and analysis of Ralph Noyes, the most high profile gay ufologist in the UK at the time.

William and John: Part 2) John in France

Last month I began to tell the story of Sir William Neville and his partner Sir John Clanvowe. I looked at their family background and childhood, and how they were connected through the manorial network of medieval England. Today I want to concentrate on the military career of Sir John Clanvowe. The campaigns in which he served are among the most important of the wars against France in the Hundred Years War.

The Hundred Years War can be said to have been caused n part by the marriage of the gay King Edward II of England to Princess Isabella of France in 1308. Isabella was a daughter of the French king who, although he had sons, had no grandsons to succeed him. This is important because France, unlike England, didn’t allow succession to the throne through the female line. Edward and Isabella’s son, King Edward III, decided that English law made him heir to the French throne though his mother and declared himself King of France. The French chose someone else. Another factor in the war was that the English crown possessed a lot of land in France as part of their feudal inheritance (see the map below). All feudal lords in France had to swear allegiance to the French king as their supreme lord. Edward III wasn’t going to swear to be subservient to any other king, and the French threatened to seize his possessions if he didn’t. That was another reason for the Hundred Years War.

The first of the campaigns in which Sir John Clanvowe served was in 1364 during the Breton War of Succession. When the old Duke of Brittany died there were two rival claimants to succeed him, John de Montfort and Charles de Blois. Both had legitimate claims under medieval law. The kings of England and France gave their support to opposing claimants. King Edward III supported de Montfort (who also happened to be his son-in-law) and the King of France supported de Blois.

The rivalry came to a head in September 1364 at Auray, a town on the Breton coast. John de Montfort was supported by battalions led by Sir John Chandos and Sir Robert Knolles. Both sides had been instructed to take no prisoners. Sir John Clanvowe was fighting in the thick of battle as the English forced the French into an indefensible position. Charles de Blois was killed and the French surrendered. John de Montfort was proclaimed the new Duke of Brittany, but instead of recognising King Edward as his feudal overlord as promised he switched his allegiance to the King of France. It was a surprising and humiliating blow to the English. Sir John Clanvowe then joined the retinue of Sir John Chandos and was present at the latter's unfortunate death.

By 1369 the French were taking over more English territory and Chandos attempted to defend the town of Poitiers. A week after Christmas Chandos and a group of about forty men including, Sir John Clanvowe, caught up with them at Lussac. Dressed in armour with his helmet visor up Chandos led the attack, but he slipped on the icy ground and stumbled head first onto the point of a lance held by a French soldier. The weapon struck him below one eye and entered his skull. Alive, conscious and writhing in agony on the icy ground his compatriots tried to protect him.

A 14th century French chronicler, Jean Froissart, described how the English knights flew into a defensive rage, specifically naming Sir John Chambo. The identity of this knight has puzzled historians, as there is no John Chambo mentioned elsewhere. However, the Chambo coat of arms is recorded in several medieval rolls and is identical to that of the Clanvowe family, which suggests that to me that Sir John Chambo was actually Sir John Clanvowe.

English then decided to launch a major expeditionary force into France. Sir John Clanvowe and his future partner Sir William Neville were to serve alongside each other for the first time in this expedition. They were part of a force that pillaged its way through northern France in August 1370 in what is called a chevauchée. This was a rampage through the countryside in an attempt to terrify the local population. Villages were attacked, fields of crops were burnt, and animals were slaughtered. Soldiers took what they wanted. Terrified villagers fled to the nearest castle or fortification.

The French then made clear their intention to invade English-owned Aquitaine. Edward III decided to launch a massive chevauchée in August 1373 with his son Prince John of Gaunt in command of about 8,000 soldiers. Sir John Clanvowe joined this "Grand Chevauchée", as it is named, which pillaged its way from Calais in a route of over 900 miles to Bordeaux in Aquitaine. A French army shadowed the English and there were a few small skirmishes in the early stages but the French army generally kept its distance.

The English forces trudged on until Christmas. Long before then most of the horses had died, as had many soldiers from disease. Provisions dwindled and the weather worsened. Replacement horses were seized from the terrified French peasants as the English army rampaged through the countryside.

It must have been the most welcome Christmas for both the exhausted army and the people of Aquitaine as the English soldiers arrived in Bordeaux to give them the support they had longed for. The Grand Chevauchée had succeeded in dissuading the French from invading Aquitaine. It also enhanced the reputation of those who took part, giving them hero status amongst the English.

During the following years Sir John Clanvowe joined the retinue of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford. John may have known de Bohun since childhood through the manorial network. De Bohun was the hereditary Lord High Constable of England, a military position similar in nature to Chief of Defence Staff. This brought de Bohun into the inner circles of the English court, and John Clanvowe may have accompanied him during his official court duties. When de Bohun King Edward III took John on as a King's Knight.

We’ll have a closer look at Sir John’s court career in a few weeks. Next time we’ll have a look at Sir William Neville. After he and Sir John Clanvowe served in the 1370 chevauchée William went on to serve as an admiral. We’ve have a look at his career, and his marriage, at the beginning of July.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 25) Friends and Betrayal

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 68) Bruce Voeller (1934-1994) was the person credited with coming up with the name “AIDS”, and names form the basis of the AIDS Memorial Quilt created by 69) Cleve Jones (b.1954), for which many companies have raised funds, including South African wine companies, one of which is owned by 70) Gerard Holden (b.1964), while another is located on the site of a leper hospital were 71) Dr. James Barry (c.1795-1865) worked.

After over 40 years service in the British army as a pioneering surgeon 71) Dr. James Barry retired to London where he died. His body was laid out in preparation for burial by a woman called Sophia Bishop. It was she discovered that James Barry was physically female and had successfully hidden this secret from the army for decades. When Sophia was refused payment for her services she took the secret to the press.

The revelation that one of the most revered army surgeons was born a woman caused quite a stir. The army were so embarrassed that they tried to suppress James Barry’s military records for a hundred years. Their attempt failed and the world got to know James Barry’s secret.

James Barry was baptised Margaret Ann Bulkey in Ireland. From adulthood he lived as a man. This suited James’ father who managed to enrol him into Edinburgh University as a medical student in 1809. Women were not allowed to study medicine in those days.

James qualified as a doctor in 1812 and enlisted into the army a year later. He rose very quickly to become Assistant Surgeon to the Forces in 1815. This position gave James the chance to travel the world. His first posting was to Cape Province in South Africa where he became Colonial Medical Inspector. In this role he went to the leper hospital at Hermanus (the location of the present Hamilton Russell wine estate) and immediately set about improving health care and hygiene practices.

James had a reputation for voicing his opposition to many established medical practices wherever he went. He even had a big row with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War over hygiene (she then stole his ideas and passed them off as her own).

By the time of his death James Barry was well-known and respected, and all because his father enrolled him into Edinburgh University all those decades earlier. Others also kept his gender a secret. One of the family friends was a Venezuelan revolutionary called Francisco de Miranda. The original plan may have been for James to act as governess to Miranda’s children, perhaps in Venezuela, before he made his decision to become a doctor. James wouldn’t have become such a famous figure in the medical world if he had gone to Venezuela because South America was in a state of turmoil as colonies began revolting against their Spanish and Napoleonic rulers. Francisco de Miranda laid the foundations for the liberation of much of South America, assisted by compatriot revolutionaries such as a Simón Bolivar and 72) Carlos de Montúfar (1780-1816).

Carlos’s relationship with the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt is mentioned here. After he and Humboldt went their separate ways Carlos entered the Spanish army and fought in several battles against the Napoleonic French. In 1810 he sailed back to his native Ecuador, a Spanish colonial province then called the Quito Audiencia. There he joined the independence movement with his father, the Marques de Selva Alegre.

In 1812 independence was declared under the name of the Autonomous Government of Quito with Carlos’s father as President. However, a few months later Spanish loyalist troops took Quito city and the revolutionary government, including Carlos de Montúfar, fled. Eventually Carlos joined Simón Bolivar in his independence campaigns in Colombia but was captured at the Battle of the Cuchilla de Tambo in June 1816. The following month he was executed.

Simón Bolivar went on to become the big hero of South American independence, even having the country Bolivia named after him, of course. Strangely, Bolivia attracted many German settlers. Their descendants are recognised as a separate ethnic community to this day.

In the 1920s Bolivia decided to call upon Germany to help them reorganise their army. One of the military instructors that was sent was 73) Ernst Röhm (1887-1934), one of Adolf Hitler’s close friends.

Ernst arrived in Bolivia in January 1929. He was disappointed that a recent conflict with Paraguay has been resolved before he arrived and he was often at odds with his commanding officer, Gen. Hans Kundt. Shortly after his arrival a coup supported by Kundt deposed the Bolivian president. Ernst was rumoured that the new president had chosen him to replace Kundt, but before that could happen Ernst received a letter from Hitler ordering him to return to Germany. If only he had stayed in Bolivia.

What attracted Ernst back was the promise of becoming Chief of Staff of the SA (Sturmabteilung, the Storm Battalion, known as the Brown Shirts), the Nazi’s paramilitary wing which Ernst had helped to found in 1921. By 1934 the general reputation of the SA had deteriorated to the status of armed thugs and Hitler decided to scale back its powers.

Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, the Chief of the SS Security Service, fabricated documents against Ernst Röhm, suggesting that the SA were planning to overthrow Hitler. Most of this evidence centred on the alleged activities of the many known gay members of the SA. Hitler knew Ernst was gay and was at first reluctant to believe the evidence. What resulted was the “Night of the Long Knives”, a pivotal event in the history of the rise of Hitler.

On 30th June 1934 Hitler and SS troops arrested Ernst Röhm and the SA leaders in a surprise attack. After some procrastination Hitler ordered the execution of Ernst two days later. Following the Night of the Long Knives Hitler strengthened Paragraph 175, the law criminalising homosexuality, and Hitler assumed more power.

Reinhard Heydrich, the co-author of the fake documents, became Protector of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic). Czech rebels murdered Heydrich in 1942 and Hitler retaliated by ordering the execution of every man in the village of Lidice, where he claimed the assassins had been harboured. The “Lidice Massacre” horrified the world. Some places still commemorate it to this day. One commemoration was a verse-play called “The Murder of Lidice” and it was written by 74) Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950).

Next time of “80 More Gays”: How a village was destroyed, how reputations were built, and how civilisations were revealed.

Homohoax: How To Fool The Nazis

Armies have always used hoaxes and deception to confuse and mislead the enemy. Camouflage is the most obvious method of concealment and the famous camouflage pattern was produced by the French army in World War I. By World War II a different technique to hoax the enemy began to be used extensively, and that was the manufacture of fake army vehicles and military bases, and some of the top lgbt artists of the era helped to hoax the Nazis. This technique wasn’t new. It has its roots way back to ancient Greece and the Trojan Horse, the ultimate disguised army personnel carrier. In the UK the technique was used most prominently by the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate. Members of this unit were mainly artists, designers and prop makers.

Two lgbt members of the British war effort to hoax the Nazis at home and abroad were Robert Medley (1905-1994) and Oliver Messel (1904-1978).

The main area of operations for the Camouflage Directorate was in North Africa. The most significant deception operations were called Operation Crusader (November-December 1941) and Operation Bertram (September-October 1942). Their purpose was to get British and Allied troops around the German defences on the Egyptian-Libyan border.

Robert Medley, an established artist and theatre designer, was assigned to Operation Crusader. With his life partner, the dancer Rupert Doone, he founded the Group Theatre. In 1937 Robert founded the Artist’s International Association, an organisation which specifically promoted the works of socialist and avant-garde artists.

It was the socialist aspect of Robert’s life which caused concern to MI5 who thought he was too Communist-leaning. They blocked his appointment as an official war artist in France and instead Robert was chosen to record air raid precautions in northern England.

When this contract ended he was selected by the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate to go to North Africa as part of Operation Crusader. There Robert designed camouflage and disguises for military vehicles and created a fake railhead and goods depot.

More extensive hoaxes were created for Operation Bertram, the deception leading up to the Battle of El Alamein in 1942 which Allied forces won. The captured Nazi general admitted that he had been fooled into thinking the Allies had more troops in the area than they actually did, thanks to Robert Medley and all the other talented members of the Camouflage Directorate.

Meanwhile, back in “blighty” (the UK), deception work was being carried out by Oliver Messel. As well as being a theatre designer Oliver designed masks and costumes. He also designed for films (he was nominated for an Oscar in 1960).

With the constant threat of a Nazi invasion the UK government devised a series of homeland defence strategies. One of these was the Taunton Stop Line, a line of defences which ran across the south-west peninsula of England (Cornwall and Devon). As with other Stop Lines around the country the defence line included small concrete machine gun posts called pillboxes. It was Oliver Messel’s job to disguise these pillboxes, which he did by making them look like caravans, haystacks, or heaps of coal. Many pillboxes survive around the country and are Grade II listed structures. Several of Olive Messel’s pillboxes also still survive.

Photo of pillboxes disguised by Oliver Messel, taken from the book “Indigo Day” by fellow artist and Camouflage officer Julian Trevelyan, published 1957.

Towards the end of the war the USA created its own camouflage division inspired by Operations Crusader and Bertram called the 603rd Engineers Camouflage Battalion, part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, more popularly known as the Ghost Army. Two lgbt artists recruited were Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) and Bill Blass (1922-2002).

Ellsworth Kelly is best known for his abstract paintings with bold blocks of colours. For the Ghost Army he painted camouflage patterns on military vehicles and designed propaganda posters. Like most artists in the Ghost Army and the British Camouflage Directorate Ellsworth filled many sketch books with ideas and designs for hoax methods.

Both the British and American camouflage units sent their members to the front line. There was no other way the artist could design effective hoaxes without knowing the lay of the land, as it was often the terrain that dictated which deception techniques were best for the area.

Bill Blass was starting his career as a fashion designer when he enlisted into the US army in 1943. His artistic skills soon saw him assigned to the Ghost Army. After some training in the States, Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly and the rest of the Ghost Army travelled to the UK where they helped the British in creating fake D-Day landings called Operation Fortitude in 1944. All over Europe hoax military operations hid the true D-Day target of the Normandy beaches of France.

The Ghost Army then went into France after the D-Day landings and gradually moved south-east, constructing fakes and hoaxes along the way. Bill Blass provided deception techniques during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-5, and Ellsworth worked along the Maginot Line, a line of defensive structures like those that Oliver Messel worked on for the Taunton Stop Line.

There is no doubt that the wartime deceptions of Robert Medley, Oliver Messel, Ellsworth Kelly and Bill Blass contributed to the success in hoaxing the Nazis into believing something that wasn’t real. On this Remembrance Day, while we may not be able to gather around memorials, let’s give a thought this year to the work of artists, designers and craftsmen who were as much a part of front-line war as the soldiers.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 19) Military Colours

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 50) Jared Polis (b.1975), Governor of Colorado, only lives in the governor’s residence during legislative sessions, unlike 51) William Hart McNichols (b.1949) who spent much of his childhood there before becoming a priest and icon painter, an art-form that caused a conflict within the Orthodox Church which saw 52) St. Methodios I of Constantinople (d.847) imprisoned before becoming Patriarch, one of many intersex officers of state in the Byzantine Empire like 53) Narses (c.478-c.568).

53) Narses was probably Armenian by birth. The dates of his birth and death are also uncertain. Although generally referred to as a eunuch in English translations of the Byzantine and Greek texts Narses could have been one of several gender types. 52) St. Methodios was a “spadone”, a person born with undeveloped or malformed sexual organs. We would called him intersex today. Then there were the “ektomiai” or “castrati” who were rendered incapable of sex by accidental or deliberate castration. Narses is thought to have been an ektomiai.

Narses career began very much as it did for other eunuchs at the imperial court. He became a cubicularius, a chamberlain of the palace. Despite being an impressive-sounding position there could have been hundreds, even thousands, of cubicularia at any one time. Narses rose to become a spatharios, a member of the Emperor Justinian’s personal guard.

Justinian was unpopular. His high taxes were the cause of many riots, which were often fuelled by which chariot team people supported.

You probably know that the Romans loved chariot races. So did their eastern survivors the Byzantines and Greeks. By Justinian’s time in the 6th century there were two chariot teams, the Blues and Greens. Supporters would dress in their team colours and chant just like supporters do today. But these teams were also political. There were no organised political parties and the emperor would appeal to team loyalty to support his laws.

By 536 circumstances came to a head. At the races the crowds weren’t chanting and hurling insults at their opponents. They were chanting united against the emperor – “Nika! Nika!”, which means “Victory! Victory!” Hence what developed became known as the Nika Riots. The spectators were angry at yet more taxes and were unified in their animosity towards Justinian. Blue and Green supporters began rioting though the stadium and out into the palace grounds and the city. For five days nothing could stop them and hundreds of people were killed and much of the city destroyed.

The stadium served as the rioters meeting place. Justinian, a Blue, ordered Narses to go there and bribe the Blue leaders into abandoning their Green allies. It worked and most of the Blues walked out. The Greens were stunned. When Narses left the stadium two of Byzantium’s greatest generals, Belisarius and Mundus, stormed into the stadium at the head of 3,000 soldiers and slaughtered everyone, some 30,000 people. Narses led another division of soldiers stationed at every exit making sure that no-one trying to escape was left alive.

As a reward for his part in ending the riot Narses was given command of a division of 7,000 soldiers. Many years later, when Narses was well into his 70s, Justinian sent him to Italy to help General Belisarius control rebel groups. Narses’ military ability was lauded by his contemporaries and by historians.

Narses’ last years were spent mainly in Italy where he rebuilt many Roman structures. He probably died in Naples at what many historians believe to have been in his 90s.

Both Narses and St. Methodios were open about their eunuch and intersex status. In more recent centuries people have had to keep their status secret. In some cases the secret is not revealed until much later. Last October I mentioned one individual who was very recently revealed to have been intersex, 54) Casimir Pulaski (1945-1779).

A nobleman and military commander of the independence struggles in his native Poland Pulaski fled Europe to fight against the British in the American War of Independence. George Washington recognised his abilities, especially after the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, and gave Pulaski his own command within the Continental Army and he donned the uniform of blue and buff, influenced by the political colours of the British pro-independence Whig party.

In these times of revisionist history it is unsettling that a man who fought against slavery in his native Poland chose to fight for pro-slavery America.

Casimir was killed in action at the young age of 34. His remains were eventually placed in a specially built monument in Savannah, Georgia. By 1996 this monument was crumbling and in need of repair. A local coroner led a campaign to discover if the remains inside the monument really were those of Pulaski – and that’s when a mystery developed.

Forensic anthropologists studied the bones and at first they identified them as belonging to a woman. The coroner recalled seeing references to a condition called congenital hydrenal hypasia, commonly referred to at that time as hermaphroditism. Today we place the condition in the intersex spectrum. Was Casimir Pulaski a woman or intersex?

Ten years of research failed to solve the mystery. Then a new team decided to test the DNA of the bones with that of Pulaski’s great-niece who was buried in Poland. The result was a match. This and other evidence have led anthropologists to suggest that Pulaski was indeed intersex.

Back to that article I wrote last October. That article was about his coat of arms and where they originated. I explained that he was a descendant of the medieval noble family of Korwin who used the crow (“corvus” in Latin) as a pun on their name. Puns were common in medieval times when most people couldn’t read and needed a visual clue (puns are still popular in heraldry today). Descendants who used the Korwin name or its variants used the crow, sometimes on a different colour background, known as a field, like the Pulaskis who used blue instead of the original red.

My article mentioned another Korwin descendant who inherited the early version of the family coat of arms, 55) Sofya Kovalevksaya (1850-1891).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: Things add up in Sweden.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 12) Don't Ask

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 31) Barbara Love (b.1937) competed in the US swimming trials for the 1952 Olympics, in which 32) Marjorie Larney (b.1937) competed before being involved in the anti-Vietnam War  protests in which 33) David Mixner (b.1946) took a leading role, who was later joined in another campaign by 34) Leonard Matlovich (1943-1988).

While 33) David Mixner was organising the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam 34) Leonard Matlovich was recovering from the injuries he received after stepping on a land mine in Da Nang in central Vietnam. This was during his second tour of duty as a sergeant in the US Air Force.

Leonard Matlovich is best remembered for being a pioneer in the fight for the acceptance of lgbt personnel in the US armed forces. For most of his military career he was regarded as an exemplary sergeant. He was described in 1974 by Major Donald D. Baines as “one of the most outstanding NCOs I have had the pleasure of working with during my Air Force career… Matlovich is an absolutely superior NCO in every respect and should be promoted to Master Sergeant well ahead of his contemporaries”.

The military honours of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich.

Sadly, the opposite happened. At the time Matlovich was beginning to recognise that he was homosexual. In March 1974 he read an interview in “Air Force News” with 35) Frank Kameny (1925-2011), an openly gay ex-serviceman who lost a Supreme Court case to overturn his discharge from the US Army Map Service. He had become an activist and supporter of other personnel who had been discharged.

Leonard contacted Frank who confessed that he had been hoping to find a serving openly gay military personnel with a perfect record to create a test case on the ban on lgbt people in the armed services. Matlovich’s air force record was perfect and he agreed to be that person. Matlovich wrote a letter which he handed in to his commanding officer on 6th March 1975 containing an admission of his homosexuality.

The result was an administrative discharge hearing and a formal honourable discharge. The subsequent appeals, campaign and fame of Leonard Matlovich, which included being the first openly lgbt person on the front cover of “Time” magazine, is well covered on the internet, so I needn’t go into it here. But let’s go back a step to David Mixner.

Despite being anti-war Mixner joined Bill Clinton’s campaign to become President of the USA in 1992. Mixner had experience in political campaigns and was persuaded to join Clinton’s race to the White House because he was a personal friend and because Clinton had promised to increase funds for AIDS research and to lift the ban on lgbt military personnel.

When Clinton was duly elected his policy on AIDS funding included the establishment of vaccine research, as mentioned in my immediately preceding article. His promise to end the ban on lgbt military personnel turned into “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which was effectively nothing. Mixner led several protests against what he thought was Clinton’s betrayal.

The “Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask” policy was repealed by President Obama on 22nd December 2010. At the signing ceremony Frank Kameny was seated in the front row of the audience. As well as being a leading campaigner for the ending of the military ban Frank was also a co-founder of the Mattachine Society in 1961. The society organised protests and pickets outside US government buildings which were to inspire Craig Rodwell (mentioned here) to create the Annual Reminder, the forerunner of the modern Pride march. I’ll write more about that next month.

Even with people like Frank Kameny, Leonard Matlovich and David Mixner making advances in lgbt inclusion in the armed forces in the USA opposition still exists, particularly with the Trump administration and transgender personnel. While there may no longer be any military discharges for homosexuality it has a long history that goes all the way back to the American War of Independence.

The first recorded instance was in 1778 with the case of 36) Frederick Gotthold Enslin (c.1740- after 1778). Englin arrived in America from Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1774. In 1777 he enlisted into Col. William Malcom’s Regiment of the 3rd Pennsylvania Brigade. The regiment was stationed at Valley Forge. Also there was Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794), who turned the army into a formidable fighting force. During the following winter George Washington arrived with his army to lead the war from there.

Less than a year after enlisting Lt. Frederick Enslin was reported to Col. Malcolm by a solider who had seen him having sex with another soldier. Enslin reported the witness for slander and the case eventually went before the commanding officer, Lt.-Col. Aaron Burr.

This is the same Aaron Burr who later became Vice President of the USA under President Thomas Jefferson. He had a famous feud with another Founding Father, the bisexual Alexander Hamilton, who was also at Valley Forge as an aide to Washington (Hamilton, von Steuben and Enslin all at Valley Forge at the same time!). The Burr-Hamilton feud was finally settled in a duel in which Burr killed Hamilton.

A fairly accurate artistic impression of the camp at Valley Forge in 1777-8, taken from the “Assassin’s Creed” videogame.

The outcome of Burr’s investigation into Frederick Enslin’s slander case was not in doubt. The case was thrown out and he was found guilty of perjury and the original charge of homosexuality. A report was then handed to George Washington who agreed with the verdict and ordered Enslin to be dismissed and, literally, drummed out of the army. The soldiers of Valley Forge gathered to see Enslin marched out of the camp to the accompaniment of pipes and drums.

No-one knows what happened to Enslin after that. His final known act was to be the first soldier discharged from the US military for his homosexuality. He was actually very lucky, because had his trial taken place in his native Netherlands he would have been executed.

Over a century earlier another Dutch colonial was burnt at the stake for his homosexuality. His name was 37) Joost Schouten (c.1600-1644).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We go looking for trade in Japan, reacquaint ourselves with the Dog Shogun, and return to give thanks.

Scandal in the Navy at the YMCA

One of the concerns still providing much debate, especially in Donald Trump’s America, is the acceptance and inclusion of lgbt personnel in the armed forces. The focus at the moment for Trump’s regime is the presence of transgender personnel.

For seven years, from 1994 to 2011, the USA imposed a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in which lgbt personnel had to publicly hide or deny their sexuality in order to remain in the armed forces. The policy itself has a long history of its own which was in some respects influenced by a scandal which began 100 year ago this month in the US Navy. Wikipedia refers to it as “the Newport Sex Scandal”.


Modern madge of the US naval station
at Newport, Rhode Island.

The scandal began in February 1919 in the naval training hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. In the months prior to this reports of homosexual behaviour at several other naval training stations had reached the US Judge Advocate General. The reports he received from Newport were considered much more serious as Newport was a major naval base.

Events began to unfold when Chief Machinist’s Mate Ervin Arnold was admitted to the hospital with acute rheumatism. He was a self-confessed “gay hunter”, claiming to be able to identify a gay man by his behaviour and speech. He had been a detective before enlisting in the navy and began his witch-hunt of gay men long before arriving in Newport.

Arnold was first made aware of gay activity in and around Newport after talking with two other patients, Samuel Rogers and Thomas Brunelle who both made Arnold’s “gaydar” ping. Thomas Brunelle, rather unwisely, described Samuel Rogers’ reputation as a “pogue”, a man who prefers being a passive gay partner in sex. Even more unwisely Brunelle went on to tell Ervin Arnold of other gay men in the naval station and Newport. This set Arnold on his campaign to hunt down all the gay men in town and lock them up.

Arnold coaxed out more information and was told of the regular gay meeting spots, especially the Newport Army and Navy YMCA and the Newport Art Association.

The Army and Navy YMCA seemed to be the major meeting place, with several of its staff also being gay men. Arnold took his collected information to the station commander, Lt. Cdr. Murphy Foster. Even before Foster had agreed to an inquiry, which would go on to recommend using trained investigators to collect more evidence, Arnold was recruiting sailors to act as spies and pose as homosexuals in order to gather more detailed reports of their activities, however explicit, and however much the spies participated in sexual acts.


Newport Army and Navy YMCA as it looks today.

Foster’s inquiry was passed on to the US Attorney General who handed the investigation over to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, someone who went on to become US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately authorised a full investigation to be led by the gay-hunter himself, Ervin Arnold.

Arnold instructed his spies to use any means to get their evidence, including taking part in sexual activity. By April 1919 there was enough evidence to have 17 sailors arrested based on the spies’ entrapment techniques. Fifteen of the sailors were found guilty of homosexual behaviour and court-martialled. Two were given dishonourable discharges.

What turned the gay witch-hunt into a public scandal against the US navy was the arrest of the naval chaplain, Rev. Samuel Neal Kent on 31st July 1919. Rev. Kent was an Episcopalian priest who had been a military chaplain since 1917 and was appointed as assistant chaplain to the Newport naval hospital during the flu epidemic on 1918. Following the Armistice Rev. Kent remained at Newport.

Ervin Arnold and his spies had seen Rev. Kent visiting the Army and Navy YMCA daily with various men, both military and civilian. Arnold had already established that the YMCA was a regular gay meeting place and it was obvious to him that there was no other reason why Rev. Kent visited the building so often. Arnold instructed his spies to entrap the minister. Their “evidence” led to Rev. Kent’s arrest on eleven counts of “lewd and scandalous behaviour”.

It was at Rev. Kent’s trial that Arnold’s disgraceful techniques were made public. The previous trials of the 17 sailors were military and private. The testimony of Arnold’s spies and the vigour with which the prosecutors handled the case outraged the public more than the idea that an ordained priest was homosexual. Rev. Kent was one of the most respected, liked and honest people in Newport. There was no problem in gathering enough character witnesses to attest to his trusted reputation. The jury agreed, and Rev. Kent was found not guilty, mainly because Arnold’s spies acted under unlawful commands and their evidence could not be accepted. A second federal trial against Rev. Kent also found him not guilty.

By the end of the two trials the public were demanding a response from the navy. A group of clergy presented a letter to US President Woodrow Wilson denouncing the navy’s action against Rev. Kent. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt went on the offensive, claiming he was unaware of Ervin Arnold’s spies or their activities, and that adverse reaction to Kent’s trials would harm the navy’s reputation (as if they hadn’t already done so!). An investigation by the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs began, and in 1920 harshly criticised Roosevelt for his role in the scandal. By this time FDR had left the navy and entered politics, claiming personal political opposition as the reason for the Committee’s findings.

Nothing was done to recompense the sailors court-martialled, or Rev. Samuel Kent. Roosevelt carried on with his political career, refusing to make any further comment on his involvement in the scandal. Most of those accused died in obscurity. Rev. Kent’s reputation was tarnished, despite being found not guilty. His regular visits to the YMCA were seen as courting suspicion and the church gradually removed Kent’s pastoral duties over the new few years. He remained a respected member of the communities in which he lived and fulfilled several voluntary duties. He died in 1943.

The 1919 Newport navy scandal may seem a distant affair, but a hundred years later. There’s still government discrimination in the US military against a significant section of the lgbt community.