Coming out under fire : the history of gay men and women in World War II / Allan Bérubé ; with a new foreword by John D'Emilio, Estelle B. Freedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bérubé, Allan.

Contributor:

D'Emilio, John.

Freedman, Estelle B., 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Gay.

World War, 1939-1945.

Gay military personnel--United States--History--20th century.

Gay military personnel.

Gay people--United States--History--20th century.

Gay people.

United States--Armed Forces--History--World War, 1939-1945.

United States.

LGBTQ+ people in the military.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

20th anniversary ed.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

During World War II, as the United States called on its citizens to serve in unprecedented numbers, the presence of gay Americans in the armed forces increasingly conflicted with the expanding antihomosexual policies and procedures of the military. In Coming Out Under Fire, Allan Berube examines in depth and detail these social and political confrontation--not as a story of how the military victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relationship developed between gay citizens and their government, transforming them both. Drawing on GIs' wartime letters, extensive interviews with gay veterans, and declassified military documents, Berube thoughtfully constructs a startling history of the two wars gay military men and women fough--one for America and another as homosexuals within the military. Berube's book, the inspiration for the 1995 Peabody Award-winning documentary film of the same name, has become a classic since it was published in 1990, just three years prior to the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which has continued to serve as an uneasy compromise between gays and the military. With a new foreword by historians John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, this book remains a valuable contribution to the history of World War II, as well as to the ongoing debate regarding the role of gays in the U.S. military.

Contents:

Foreword / by John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman

Preface and acknowledgments

Introduction : "why we fight"

Getting in

Fitting in

GI drag : a gay refuge

"The gang's all here" : the gay life and vice control

The fight for reform

Pioneer experts : psychiatrists discover the gay GI

Comrades in arms

Fighting another war

Rights, justice, and a new minority

The legacy of the war.

Notes:

Stonewall Honor, 1991

"Published by arrangements with the Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schouster, Inc."--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9798890840264

9798893130126

9781469604596

1469604590

9780807899649

080789964X

OCLC:

689997531