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Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two.
The Free Press: New York. 377 pp. $22.95
My Country, My Right to Serve: Experiences of Gay Men and Women in the Military, World War II to the Present By Mary Ann Humphrey (New York: HarperCollins, 1990) 285 pp. $19.95
These two accounts of the lives of gay men and lesbians in the military are a welcome addition to both the history of the military and the history of gay men and lesbians in the United States. Berube provides a splendid history of the military's attempt to deal with the issue of homosexuality at a time that nearly every warm body was needed for the war effort. Humphrey's book is a wonderful follow-up to that history, offering the experiences of military personnel from World War II forward.
Allan Berube's Coming Out Under Fire is based on exhaustive research using a multitude of sources including governmental archives, personal papers and interviews. Such a variety of resources enables Berube to blend the often contradictory webs of bureaucracy with the personal tales of both humor and pathos into a tapestry rich with color and detail.
Throughout the book Berube points to the contradictions inherent in a system that claims to serve to protect America's freedom, yet denies many citizens their personal freedom. He also touches on the conflict that many gay men and lesbians felt, and continue to feel, about military service. The first chapter, and to some degree the entire book, provides examples of those who wanted to serve but were refused and those who could have served but, not wanting to do so, used their sexual orientation as a means to avoid service. It is worth noting that this issue has not disappeared. An ongoing battle within the gay community is whether or not the rights of a gay man or lesbian to serve in the military are worth pursuing, given that so much of the gay leadership see themselves as anti-war as well.
Berube's chapters each tackle a different part of the story and while fitting together like pieces of a puzzle each could almost each stand alone in their ability to tell a story. Chapter 1, entitled "Getting In,"...