Coming Out Under FireAmong the many histories of fighting men and women in World War II, little has been written about the thousands of homosexuals who found themselves fighting two wars--one for their country, the other for their own survival as targets of a military policy that sought their discharge as "undesirables." To write this long overdue chapter of American history, Allan Bérubé spent ten years interviewing gay and lesbian veterans, unearthed hundreds of wartime letters between gay GIs, and obtained thousands of pages of newly declassified government documents. While some gay and lesbian soldiers collapsed under the fear of being arrested, interrogated, discharged, and publicly humiliated, many drew strength from deep wartime friendships. Relying on their own secret culture of slang, body language, and "camp" to find each other and build spontaneous communities, they learned, both on and off the battlefield, to be proud of their contribution and of who they were.--From publisher description. |
Contents
Why We Fight | 1 |
Getting In | 8 |
Fitting In | 34 |
A Gay Refuge | 67 |
The Gay Life and Vice Control 888 | 98 |
The Fight for Reform | 128 |
Psychiatrists Discover the Gay GI | 149 |
Comrades in Arms | 175 |
Fighting Another War | 201 |
Rights Justice and a New Minority | 228 |
The Legacy of the War | 255 |
Other editions - View all
Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II Allan Bérubé Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
American Journal antihomosexual policies armed forces Army and Navy barracks basic training Ben Small blue discharge buddies butch Camp Carmen Miranda chaplain cities civilian combat Crittenden Report David Barrett Donald Vining draft drag effeminate enlisted explained female impersonation fighting File Folder Fort Oglethorpe Frank Jacober friends gay bars gay GIs gay male gay patients gay soldiers gay veterans heterosexual homosexual homosexual personnel hospital Hotel Howard Taylor interrogation interview January Journal of Psychiatry July lectures lesbian Letter male and lesbian masculine Memorandum military officials military service military's morale Naval Neuropsychiatry nurses October Oglethorpe Testimony Overholser prison problem psychiatric psychiatrists queer recalled recruits sailors San Francisco screening Selective Service servicemen sexual psychopaths social sodomists sodomy soldier show South Pacific stationed stockades Surgeon Troubled World undesirable discharges WAAC wartime Washington women Women's Army Corps Woodie Wilson World War II wrote Yank York