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bfdbookblog's review against another edition
4.0
Very detailed stories of what happened to homosexual people during WWII. It is horrible to read about...but I did find my mind wandering quite a bit as the stories were repetitive. I definitely think it's critical for anyone wanting to know about homosexual history in the US to read this book.
suannelaqueur's review against another edition
5.0
This was FASCINATING. I kept highlighting sections and sending them to my dad. Highly, highly recommend.
spacestationtrustfund's review
4.0
The generation of gay men and women who served in World War II grew into adulthood fighting one war for their country and another to protect themselves from their government's escalating mobilisation against them.This is one of those books that's difficult to review, because who am I to give an opinion on something so culturally important? But I did like it, I did enjoy reading it.
Allan Bérubé draws on extensive archival research as well as numerous interviews with queer (and straight) military veterans to support his hypothesis that traditional gender roles and sexual expectations were confounded by mass military service. Despite the US military's official stance against homosexuality, that did little to stop queer men and women from enlisting and, indeed, serving, whether their sexuality was known or kept closeted. Although the military often subjected queer men and women—or even those suspected of being as such—to unethical physical and psychological exams, including those where the (usually male) person in question would be forced to strip naked and shown erotica to gauge the physical reaction. It was believed that queer men had softer or larger lips as a result of performing oral sex on other men, so any enlistee with those physical characteristics would be under suspicion. Individuals, typically men, found out to be queer were often disciplined, imprisoned, fined, or dishonourably discharged, typically through a process known as "blue ticketing," which was also disproportionately applied to African-American soldiers; although the blue ticket or card would not outright state that the soldier had been discharged for confirmed or suspected homosexuality, it was an open secret what the ticket meant, which resulted in discrimination, lack of employment, and frequently worse to those given one.
And yet, despite this seemingly hostile environment, homosocial relationships flourished. In part this was thought to be a result of the sex-segregated barracks and value placed on wartime camaraderie, something Bérubé notes frequently, saying:
Some gay soldiers and officers, particularly those with a college education, carried with them a mythology, developed from reading the classics and in conversations with other gay men, about "armies of lovers," such as the "Sacred Band of Thebes" in ancient Greece, and heroic military leaders, such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Frederick the Great, and Lawrence of Arabia, who like themselves had had male lovers. This folklore provided them with romantic historical images that could help allay self-doubts before their first combat missions. It confirmed that there had always been gay warriors who fought with courage and skill, sometimes spurred on by the desire to fight bravely by the side of their lovers.There was also the fact that, with sex-segregated troops, entertainment amongst men was primarily provided by other men. This often took the form of comedic stage performances, which would today be considered more or less identical to drag shows. A similar pattern—male actors playing female roles onstage—can be traced back millennia, all the way to Ancient Greek theatre and earlier. Bérubé also acknowledges what he calls "situational homosexuality," where soldiers would engage in sexual relationships with one another regardless of their romantic interest in other men (it was also believed by a majority of GIs that venereal diseases could only be contracted from heterosexual intercourse, and—given that condom rations were often used on rifle-barrels to prevent weather damage—this was in no small part one of the reasons behind these "situational" sexual relationships; conversely, enlisted women were not told that venereal disease could or could not be contracted from lesbian sex, but based on essentially every reliable report, this did nothing to stop them from engaging in it). This type of "situational" relationship was also prevalent amongst WACs and army nurses, many of whom were either away from their husbands or partners for long periods of time and therefore turned to other women for sexual gratification, or single women curious about lesbian experiences. Of course, queer spaces were hardly nonexistent prior to the war, even in the US (which, compared to pre-war countries such as Germany, the undisputed hub of queer sexual expression and acceptance, was relatively conservative about such matters); Bérubé explains at length how the need for discretion birthed its own discreet community amongst queer servicemen and -women within the context of the war, often forming relationships and connections that would last the length of the war if not even longer after.
But the focus is not exclusively on the sexual and gendered dynamics amongst service members: Bérubé dedicates a significant portion of the book to spelling out, in detail, the manifold ways queer servicemen and -women served just as honourably as their heterosexual counterparts during the war, providing examples of queer soldiers, medics, etc. who saved lives, won medals, performed dangerous and excruciating tasks, took on crushingly difficult roles, and lost their lives during the fighting. Bérubé takes a darker tone when discussing the treatment these people faced during and after the war, where queer veterans were imprisoned, fined, disciplined, stripped of decorations, demoted, denied veterans' benefits, and ostracised, resulting in the first tangible roots of the American queer rights movement that would hit its stride in the 1960s and continue in force through the 1980s.
The book is by no means an easy read—Bérubé spares no unpleasant or uncomfortable detail—but it's also a meticulously crafted portrait of resiliency, acknowledging and honouring these people not only for the hardships and persecution they endured but also the incredible courage they displayed. It is an incredible book, a testament to both Bérubé's exhaustive queer scholarship as well as the remarkable individuals portrayed within. Bérubé's research predates the don't-ask don't-tell era of the US military, something that is frankly difficult to believe, but its cultural resonance and relevance remain, barely diminished by the passage of time.
mattrohn's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A good history of both gay military service in WWII and of the evolving role of psychiatry in thinking about and affecting policy towards homosexuality. This book is a bit hostage to its source base, eager to draw on military records in some places where it could reach for more external social history sources, but is clear and to the point. Would pair well with Gay New York and The Straight State