SUBVERTED SELFIE PROJECT POST - November 11, 2021: “Pins of remembrance”

I often wear different pins and wanted to showcase a few that came this last week from sellers on @etsy.

With #RemembranceDay just around the corner, I got 2 beautiful #poppy pins from @barnodesignsco, located in the UK. They had many variations of pins including the traditional red. I chose one that included the slogan, “ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL.” It’s a #quote first attributed to #KoreanWar Veteran Howard William Osterkamp. Osterkamp was a Purple Heart recipient who continued to #fight even after his leg was broken. The phrase is generally tied to American military members who were wounded or killed in action, but it can be associated with those who fell in any war. For me, the fact that Osterkamp fought in Korea, reminds me of my Father, Dr Han Choo (Hanju) Lee, who came to Canada in 1952 to escape the horrors of that war which physically divided his country of birth.

The second poppy I got features the poppy with the LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 rainbow colours, highlighting the fact that many gay, lesbian and transgender soldiers have fought for their countries and fallen. As someone who came out last year as #demipansexual and #genderfluid, it’s important to remember the fact that Queer individuals have fought before across the history of our world. The @BBC @BBCNEWS ‘s Bethen Bell in a 2017 article titled, “Forbidden love: The WW2 letters between two men” highlights the story of Gilbert Bradley and the letters he wrote to the love of his life, Gordon Bowsher. Having homosexual relations in the military at that time was illegal, under the penalty of death. The @wwiimuseum in New Orleans has a beautiful page dedicated to LGBTQ+ in WW2 that is worth visiting and it features many articles and stories about brave LGBTQ+ men and women who fought for America. The Canadian Encyclopedia also has a great article titled “Canada’s Cold War Purge of LGBTQ from the Military” which shows how the Canadian military discriminated against LGBTQ servicemen and women for decades, even into the 1990s.

So it might be a bit controversial to wear these variations as the @royalcanadianlegion does have a recommended protocol for wearing the poppy lapel pin it distributes, although they do state on their website that ultimately “…wearing a Poppy is a personal expression of Remembrance, and how someone chooses to wear a Poppy is always an individual choice.”

This photo and text were also shared on my 500px, Flickr, Instagram, and VSCO.