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A review by anna_hepworth
Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II by Allan Bérubé
5.0
This has taken me a very long time to get through, with multiple false starts, because it is not easy reading.
The last section particularly, is so depressing. Which is not to say that several of the earlier sections were not depressing, but the discussion of gay men and women put into 'psychiatric' facilities and/or forced to sign 'confessions', followed by how horrible the government was to them on their return to civilian life was appalling. Unsurprising, but so hard to read. Particularly the way that the 1950s narrowing of acceptable gender roles was used against people who were gender non-conforming at all.
The whole book is meticulously researched and well put together. BМ©rubМ© acknowledges the limitations of their research, specifically mentioning the uneven demographics in who they were able to interview, and what they did to try and account for that.
The last section particularly, is so depressing. Which is not to say that several of the earlier sections were not depressing, but the discussion of gay men and women put into 'psychiatric' facilities and/or forced to sign 'confessions', followed by how horrible the government was to them on their return to civilian life was appalling. Unsurprising, but so hard to read. Particularly the way that the 1950s narrowing of acceptable gender roles was used against people who were gender non-conforming at all.
The whole book is meticulously researched and well put together. BМ©rubМ© acknowledges the limitations of their research, specifically mentioning the uneven demographics in who they were able to interview, and what they did to try and account for that.