Conduct Unbecoming
Click here to screen
Synopsis
A revealing, provocative and intimate story of how a generation of gay young men and women fought to keep their sexuality hidden from the military.

Conduct Unbecoming tells the story of homosexual love caught in the middle of the Second World War and in the line of fire of the military. A generation of young British and American gays were becoming aware of their sexuality, when the outbreak of WW2 threw them into the strict rules of the military. But in the midst of war, gays, like straight soldiers, learnt how to find lovers and new sexual awakenings began. John wrote over 600 letters to his lover Steve; Sarah found her first feelings towards another woman; Jimmy began a relationship with the Sargeant. As these troops were moulded into soldiers they rose through the ranks – Naval Officers, Corporals on the Airforce, Psychiatric Nurses, Concert Party Drag Artists – and they soon learnt how to do their bit for the war effort. But the military didn't agree. Conduct Unbecoming tells how some of these characters were caught up in witch-hunts as the commanding officers tried to weed out homosexuals. They labelled them as undesirables and lepers to society, classed them as unfit for combat, placed them in the mental wards for psychiatric observation and even shipped them back home to be imprisoned. Finally they were stripped of their uniforms and kicked out of the military with a dishonourable discharge.

Duration
1 x 50'
Definition
SD
Genre
History
Subgenre
Factual
Producer
3BM TELEVISION LIMITED