ABSTRACT
The relationship between the U.S. military and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is more complex than it first appears. Historically, the American military has both denied the existence of homosexual 1 service members and had a hand in shaping what some have termed an “official gay identity” (Lehring 2003) and the coming out process (Bérubé 1990). Department of Defense policies and practices have evolved over time. In different periods, military policies and practices have focused to differing degrees on excluding and discharging homosexuals on the basis of past or current same-sex sexual acts, as well as targeting same-sex attraction, self-identification, gender difference, or some combination of desire, behavior, and identity (Bérubé 1990; Burrelli and Feder 2009; Shilts 1993). Volunteers and draftees were not intentionally excluded from military service based on homosexual identity until World War II, although they were tried sometimes for homosexual acts before that time (Chauncey 1989). Discharges based on homosexuality were not considered dishonorable until after World War II (Mettler 2005). Importantly, during times of war, enforcement of policies to exclude homosexuals from the military was often relaxed.
