Queer tourist venues as sites of clandestine operational cover in World War II Paris

The interconnections between queerness, espionage, and space expose the problematic nature of homosexual covert agents in international relations. This article considers the intersection of sexuality, queerness, war, and tourist space as a means to understand the complex interactions between same-sex desire and the operational objectives of an undercover agent of the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive, Major Denis Rake, on mission to France as a radio operator between 14 May 1942 and late April 1943. In the mid-1940s, a queer geography was already established in Paris by the time of the German occupation. During this same period, however, the Vichy government made efforts to constrain and limit queer culture in Paris. Rake's employment at le Boeuf sur le Toit as a drag performer for German tourists enhanced his operational cover, obscuring him from German surveillance.