Library Catalog
On the Shelf from CCBC Libraries
Ask and Tell by
Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was the directive of President Clinton's 1993 military policy regarding gay and lesbian soldiers. This official silence continued a collective amnesia about the patriotic service and courageous sacrifices of homosexual troops. Ask and Tell recovers these lost voices, offering a rich chronicle of the history of gay and lesbian service in the U.S. military from World War II to the Iraq War. Drawing on more than 50 interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, Steve Estes charts the evolution of policy toward homosexuals in the military over the past 65 years, uncovering the ways that silence about sexuality and military service has affected the identities of gay veterans. These veteran voices--harrowing, heroic, and on the record--reveal the extraordinary stories of ordinary Americans, men and women who simply did their duty and served their country in the face of homophobia, prejudice, and enemy fire. Far from undermining national security, unit cohesion, or troop morale, Estes demonstrates, these veterans strengthened the U.S. military in times of war and peace. He also examines challenges to the ban on homosexual service, placing them in the context of the wider movement for gay rights and gay liberation. Ask and Tell is an important compilation of unheard voices, offering Americans a new understanding of the value of all the men and women who serve and protect them.
Call Number: UB418.G38 E77 2008
Fighting to Serve by
2013 Over the Rainbow Project Nonfiction Winner Discharged in 2002 from the US Army under the provisions of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Alexander Nicholson was shocked to learn there was no group advocating DADT's repeal that was reaching out to active military or veterans organizations. Nicholson believed the repeal effort needed spokespersons who understood military culture, who could talk about DADT's impact on those who serve to those who serve and served. Someone like him. From this idea Servicemembers United, the largest organization for gay and lesbian servicemembers, was born. Nicholson and several others who had been discharged under DADT toured the United States, where they spoke at American Legion posts, on radio talk shows, and at press conferences across the South and on both coasts. Surprised at the mostly positive reception that the tour provoked, Nicholson and Servicemembers United were propelled to the forefront of the DADT repeal fight. In time Nicholson became the only named plaintiff in the successful lawsuit that ordered the policy overturned, forcing the US Congress to act. Fighting to Serve gives a no-holds-barred account of the backstage strategies and negotiations, revealing how various LGBT organizations, the Congress, the Pentagon, and the White House often worked at cross purposes. But in the end, it was the pressure brought by active veterans, a court ruling out of California, and a few courageous senators, representatives, and military leaders that brought the destructive policy to an end.
Call Number: UB418.G38 N53 2012
Gays in the Military by
This volume explores the topic of gays in the military by presenting varied expert opinions that examine many of the different aspects that surround this issue. Essays are arranged in a pro versus con format to provide the reader with multiple intelligent viewpoints. This activates the higher-level critical thinking and reading skills that are essential in a culture of diverse and contradictory opinions. How does Don't ask, don't tell affect the military? How is the government handling the issue of gays in the military? How do other countries treat gays in the military? These and other fascinating queries are answered through this book.
Call Number: UB418.G38 G373 2011
Integrating the US Military by
One of the great ironies of American history since World War II is that the military--typically a conservative institution--has often been at the forefront of civil rights. In the 1940s, the 1970s, and the early 2000s, military integration and promotion policies were in many ways more progressive than similar efforts in the civilian world. Today, the military is one of the best ways for people from marginalized groups to succeed based solely on job performance. Integrating the US Military traces the experiences of African Americans, Japanese Americans, women, and gay men and lesbians in the armed forces since World War II. By examining controversies from racial integration to the dismantling of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the recent repeal of the ban on women in combat, these essays show that the military is an important institution in which social change is confirmed and, occasionally, accelerated. Remarkably, the challenges launched against the racial, gender, and sexual status quo in the postwar years have also broadly transformed overarching ideas about power, citizenship, and America's role in the world. The first comparative study of legally marginalized groups within the armed services, Integrating the US Military is a unique look at the history of military integration in theory and in practice. The book underscores the complicated struggle that accompanied integration and sheds new light on a broad range of comparable issues that affect civilian society, including affirmative action, marriage laws, and sexual harassment.
Call Number: UB417 .I58 2017
Websites
- Legal and Financial Considerations for Lesbian and Gay Service Members
This website is part of the U.S.Department of Defense's Military OneSource network - Lesbian, Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Service Members and Veterans
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Streaming Videos
- The Strange History of Don't Ask Don't TellSuspenseful, deeply engaging and heart-wrenching, The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell illustrates the tumultuous evolution of a controversial policy which fostered hate and intolerance within the military - and undermined the very freedoms American soldiers fight for - by forcing gay and lesbian soldiers to lie and live in secrecy. In 1993, President Bill Clinton, trying to deliver on his election promise of lifting the ban on gays in the military, encountered vehement opposition that resulted in the compromise legislation, known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
Databases
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- SIRS Issues Researcher This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint essays, topic essays, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
- Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint essays, topic essays, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
- Social Science Database
Articles on social science topics like communication, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology.
- SocINDEX This link opens in a new window
Articles on sociology topics including criminal justice, gender studies, racial studies, social services, and social work.
- U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Articles, essays, and primary sources on the history of the United States.
Organizations
Online from CCBC Libraries
Coming Out under Fire by
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.
Publication Date: 2010-09-07
One of the Boys by
Using a wide array of sources - including long-closed court martial records, psychiatric and personnel files, unit war diaries, films, and oral histories - Paul Jackson relates the struggle of queer servicemen of all ranks and branches of the Canadian military to fit in to avoid losing their careers and reputations. He argues that even though homosexual men were often accepted and popular within their units, if they were accused of homosexual behaviour, they were subjected to psychiatric assessments, courts-martial proceedings, prison terms, and dishonourable discharges. An influential and eye-opening study, the author has updated this critically acclaimed work with a new preface that considers depictions of soldiers serving in the war in Afghanistan and the continued silence about homosexual servicemen and women.
Publication Date: 2010-03-15
Sexual Orientation and U. S. Military Personnel Policy by
This study on sexual orientation and U.S. military policy, requested by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Secretary of Defense in order to weigh repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, examines public and military opinion on allowing gay men and lesbians to serve without restriction; research on sexual orientation, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention; and experiences of domestic agencies and foreign militaries.
Publication Date: 2011-01-15
Soldier of Change by
When "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the official U.S. policy on gays serving in the military, was repealed in September 2011, soldier Stephen Snyder-Hill (then Captain Hill) was serving in Iraq. Having endured years of this policy, which passively encouraged a culture of fear and secrecy for gay soldiers, Snyder-Hill submitted a video to a Republican primary debate held two days after the repeal. In the video he asked for the Republicans' thoughts regarding the repeal and their plans, if any, to extend spousal benefits to legally married gay and lesbian soldiers. His video was booed by the audience on national television. Soldier of Change captures not only the media frenzy that followed that moment, placing Snyder-Hill at the forefront of this modern civil rights movement, but also his twenty-year journey as a gay man in the army: from self-loathing to self-acceptance to the most important battle of his life--protecting the disenfranchised. Since that time, Snyder-Hill has traveled the country with his husband, giving interviews on major news networks and speaking at universities, community centers, and pride parades, a champion of LGBT equality.
Publication Date: 2014-09-15
Online Articles
- I Thought I Could Serve as an Openly Gay Man in the Army. Then Came the Death Threats.
New York Times Magazine, April 10, 2019 - Trump's controversial transgender military policy goes into effect
NBC News, April 12, 2019