Skip to content
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS $35+
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL US ORDERS $35+
Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II / Edition 2 - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II / Edition 2

Availability:
in stock, ready to be shipped
$37.50 - $37.50
$37.50
$47.99
$47.99 - $47.99
$47.99
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.

ISBN-13: 9780807871775

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Publication Date: 09-07-2010

Pages: 416

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

Allan Berube (1946-2007) was a community historian and author of numerous essays and articles.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

At last, the definitive work on gay heroes and heroines of World War II. Their gallantry was in bold contrast to the cravenness of their detractors. A profoundly moving work.—Studs Terkel, author of The Good War



Both a classic in the field and still the definitive work on its subject. Nothing surpasses it.—Regina Kunzel, author of Criminal Intimacy

Table of Contents

Foreword John D'Emilio Estelle B. Freedman vii

Preface and Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: "Why We Fight" 1

1 Getting In 8

2 Fitting In 34

3 GI Drag: A Gay Refuge 67

4 "The Gang's All Here": The Gay Life and Vice Control 98

5 The Fight for Reform 128

6 Pioneer Experts: Psychiatrists Discover the Gay GI 149

7 Comrades in Arms 175

8 Fighting another War 201

9 Rights, Justice, and a New Minority 228

10 The Legacy of the War 255

A Note on Sources 281

Notes 289

Illustration Credits 361

Index 363