IDEA Team Blog Series: LGBTQ+ U.S. Veterans
by Alayna L. Vander Veer on 2025-11-03T11:02:55-05:00 in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Women's & Gender Studies | 0 CommentsNovember is National Veterans and Military Families Month. In light of recent events such as the US Naval Academy Library removing books about race and LGBTQ+ topics and the soaring popularity of the 2025 Netflix hit series Boots, the IDEA Team Blog Series would like to highlight the achievements and history of U.S. LGBTQ+ military personnel.
Following Titles:
The following books are recommended reading for more information about the experience of LGBTQ+ individuals in the U.S. military.
The Pink Marine by
ISBN: 9780997285710
Publication Date: 2016-02-17
The Pink Marine is the story-full of hilarity and heartbreak-of how a teenage boy who struggles with self-acceptance and doesn't fit the traditional definition of masculinity finds acceptance and self-worth in Marine Corps boot camp. When Greg Cope White's best friend tells him he's spending his summer in Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, all Greg hears is 'summer' and 'camp'. Despite dire warnings from his friend, Greg vows to join him in recruit training. He's eighteen, underweight, he's never run a mile-and he's gay. Greg's sheltered life hadn't prepared him for military service. A prince out of water, he packed five suitcases since he'd never been away from home for thirteen weeks. The U.S. Marines stripped him from all of that, shaved his head and put a rifle in his hands. At first he struggles to keep up, and afraid his secret will be discovered. But midway through, the desire to survive and become a Marine trumps fear. He learns that everyone, just like in the real world, comes into the service feeling 'different'; possibly prejudged for the color of their skin, their weight, their poverty--some have even chosen boot camp over jail. Can a flighty, 112-pound, unmanly Texan transform into one of the few, the proud, the Marines? Will Greg even survive?
ISBN: 1613743734
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
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.
Service Denied by
ISBN: 9781613769317
Publication Date: 2022-07-29
Wartime military service is held up as a marker of civic duty and patriotism, yet the rewards of veteran status have never been equally distributed. Certain groups of military veterans--women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and former service members with stigmatizing conditions, "bad paper" discharges, or criminal records--have been left out of official histories, excised from national consciousness, and denied state recognition and military benefits. Chronicling the untold stories of marginalized veterans in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Service Denied uncovers the generational divides, cultural stigmas, and discriminatory policies that affected veterans during and after their military service. Together, the chapters in this collection recast veterans beyond the archetype, inspiring an innovative model for veterans studies that encourages an intersectional and interdisciplinary analysis of veterans history. In addition to contributions from the volume editors, this collection features scholarship by Barbara Gannon, Robert Jefferson, Evan P. Sullivan, Steven Rosales, Heather Marie Stur, Juan Coronado, Kara Dixon Vuic, John Worsencroft, and David Kieran.
Ask and Tell by
ISBN: 9780807859551
Publication Date: 2009-02-01
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.
Integrating the US Military by
ISBN: 9781421422473
Publication Date: 2017-05-01
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.
Gay Mental Healthcare Providers and Patients in the Military: Personal Experiences and Clinical Care
ISBN: 9783319660264
This volume tells the history of homosexuality in the United States military beginning in 1986, when the issue first came to the forefront of social consciousness. Each chapter is written through the eyes of gay mental healthcare providers, covering how to steadily adapt and learn to treat veterans struggling with the traumas associated with the stigma of homosexuality in service. Topics include the “Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell” (DADT) policy, its repeal in 2011, and addresses the current trends and challenges. Unlike any other professional book, this text includes the personal stories of gay military mental healthcare providers, as well as gay civilian clinicians who have worked with the military population in various segments in history. These accounts offer invaluable support for medical professionals working with this demographic. Chapters cover the various psychological damage service personnel encounter as it uniquely pertains to those struggling with the stigma of LGBTQ rights. Chapters include clinical pearls for particular psychiatric concerns, lessons learned for the future, and hard-earned successes as stigmas and perceptions evolved over time. Gay Mental Healthcare Providers and Patients in the Military is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, policymakers, and all professionals who are interested in LGBTQ rights in the context of veteran psychiatry.
One of the Boys, Second Edition by
ISBN: 9780773582644
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
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.
Her Cold War by
ISBN: 1469664453
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
In the late 1940s, defense officials structured women's military roles on the basis of gender differences, presuming women's and men's biological differences made it necessary to create distinct opportunities - and limitations - for servicewomen. Classified as noncombatants, servicewomen filled roles that they might hold in civilian life, such as secretarial or nursing positions. Defense officials also created regulations that prohibited pregnant women and mothers from remaining in the military, and encouraged many women to end their service commitment early if they married. But by the 1970s many servicewomen, joined in the civilian world by second-wave feminists, called for a broader definition of equality free of gender-based service restrictions. Women's continued exclusion from combat roles signaled that servicewomen would only be equal with men when they shared responsibility in all aspects of national defense, including combat (which remained a prerequisite for promotion leadership positions). Many of the battles that Tanya Roth's subjects fought paved the way for other servicepeople, including people with disabilities, LGBT and gender nonconforming people, noncitizens, and more. Like women during the Cold War, these members of the military have had and continue to fight a war with some victories and many institutional and social obstacles.
Coming Out under Fire by
ISBN: 9781469604596
Publication Date: 2010-09-07
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 fought--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.
Warring over Valor by
ISBN: 0813597579
Publication Date: 2018-10-15
By focusing on how the idea of heroism on the battlefield helped construct, perpetuate, and challenge racial and gender hierarchies in the United States between World War I and the present, Warring over Valor provides fresh perspectives on the history of American military heroism. The book offers two major insights into the history of military heroism. First, it reveals a precarious ambiguity in the efforts of minorities such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, women, and gay men to be recognized as heroic soldiers. Paradoxically, America's heroism discourse allowed them to press their case for full membership in the nation, but doing so simultaneously validated the dichotomous interpretations of race and gender they repudiated. The ambiguous role of marginalized groups in war-related hero-making processes also testifies to this volume's second general insight: the durability and tenacity of the masculine warrior hero in U.S. society and culture. Warring over Valor bridges a gap in the historiography of heroism and military affairs.
The U. S. Military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy
ISBN: 9780275991913
Publication Date: 2007-10-30
Embser-Herbert explores the history of the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, (DADT) the federal law restricting the military service of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. In this narrative overview, she traces the policy from its origins in the early 1990s, through its evolution and implementation into law in the United States military, before evaluating the impact of post-9/11 events on the military, the policy, and the ongoing debate surrounding the existence of the policy itself as lawmakers consider its repeal. Her three-part history of DADT begins with a brief look at earlier policies that preceded it, a discussion of events in 1992-1993 that resulted in the passage and implementation of the new law, and an examination of the law's impact on the military. She also compares the policy to that of other nations, such as Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, that eliminated similar restrictions as they sought ways to avoid a potential manpower shortage in their armed forces. The War on Terror has returned DADT to the public spotlight. Embser-Herbert examines U.S. experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and what they can teach about gays and lesbians in the military. She concludes Part I with an analysis of whether the law might be repealed or overturned. Part II of the handbook provides summaries of key legal decisions, and Part III contains key documents, such as the language of the law itself and excerpts from current military regulations and training manuals.
With honor and integrity: transgender troops in their own words by
Publication Date: 2021
Heartfelt personal accounts from transgender people fighting for the right to serve in the military "Prior to coming out as transgender I served the first several years of my career under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," hiding my sexual orientation out of the constant fear of expulsion. I then found myself in the same predicament as when I first joined, wanting nothing more than to serve my country and do my job, but at the cost of sacrificing a major part of who I am. . . . This time, however, I decided that I could no longer sacrifice my own well-being, my own authentic self."--Mak Vaden, Warrant Officer 1, U.S. Army National Guard, 2006-present"I have traveled around the world. . . . I have been on five cutters with eleven years of sea time and commanded the Coast Guard cutter Campbell. I have negotiated treaties and fostered international law enforcement cooperation. I have stopped drug smugglers and seized illegal fishing vessels on the high seas. And, I also have gender dysphoria and identify as a trans woman."--Allison Caputo, Captain, US Coast Guard, 1995-presentOn January 25, 2021, in one of his first acts as President, Joe Biden reversed the Trump Administration's widely condemned ban on transgender people in the military. In With Honor and Integrity, M̀el Embser-Herbert and Bree Fram introduce us to the brave individuals who are on the front lines of this issue, assembling a powerful, accessible, and heartfelt collection of first-hand accounts from transgender military personnel in the United States. Featuring twenty-six essays from current service members or veterans, these eye-opening accounts show us what it is like to serve in the military as a transgender person. From a religious affairs specialist in the Army National Guard, to a petty officer first class in the Navy, to a veteran of the Marine Corps who became "the real me" at age forty-nine, these accounts are personal, engaging, and refreshingly honest. Contributors share their experiences from before and during President Trump's ban--what barriers they face at work, why they do or don't choose to serve openly, and how their colleagues have treated them. Fram, a lieutenant colonel who is serving openly as a transgender woman in the US Space Force, and has advocated for open service policies, shares her experience in the aftermath of Trump's announcement of the ban on Twitter. Ultimately, Embser-Herbert and Fram provide an inspiring look at the past, present, and future of transgender military service. At a time when LGBTQ rights are under siege, and the right to serve continues to be challenged, With Honor and Integrity is a timely and necessary read.
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