19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revealing and eminently useful., August 23, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers: Dialogues With Gay Young Men in the U.S. Military (Haworth Gay and Lesbian Studies) (Paperback)
This book is a collection of transcribed conversations. Like the works to which it is most likely to be compared, Mary Ann Humphrey's "My Country, My Right to Serve" and Randy Shilts's "Conduct Unbecoming," Zeeland provides ample biographical material. Yet the book's greatest worth is not in the narratives it contains of individual lives. It is the connections, relationships, and social patterns described incidentally by the interviewees that make it a unique and eminently useful contribution to gay and lesbian studies. The dialogues chronicle what has long been known to exist but few before have actually described in depth, the far-ranging and pervasive gay networks within the United States Army and Air Force. One of the back-cover blurbs accurately proclaims that the book challenges stereotypes and assumptions. A considerable body of research in the recent past encourages the belief that danger and misery characterize life for gays in the military. This was not true for the soldier-lovers who told their stories to Zeeland. Most claimed their sexual orientation created little difficulty. Several complained of minor harassment and insisted gays endured more frustations in the military than heterosexuals, but others claimed that life was no more unpleasant for gays than for anyone else in the service. The interviewees rarely expressed the morbid fears or self-doubts that allegedly result from continuous efforts at concealment and public denial. "The purpose of this book," Zeeland explains, "is to promote queer GI visibility." In this he has been successful, and in the process has given readers a revealing glimpse of gay community life in the United States Army and Air Force.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book blew me away., July 29, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers: Dialogues With Gay Young Men in the U.S. Military (Haworth Gay and Lesbian Studies) (Paperback)
This book not only lets you see the lives of REAL gay men in the military, it's also a look at this whole network of young soldiers. It's amazing how different these GIs are from each other, all they really have in common is that they like men. Except some of them are more "bi-curious" I guess. It's a whole different world from the gay scene. And I couldnt believe how blunt and open these guys are! Oh yeah, it's damn sexy reading too.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting, insightful and informative read, September 12, 2010
This review is from: Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers: Dialogues With Gay Young Men in the U.S. Military (Haworth Gay and Lesbian Studies) (Paperback)
I suppose that nearly every gay male--myself included--has fantasized at one time or another about a uniform bulging with raw masculine virility. Of course, according to the politicians and military brass, homosexuality is not supposed to exist. Gays in the military? Unheard of! Steven Zeeland's Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers [Routledge, 1993] puts a lie to that proposition by introducing us to sixteen very active gays in the military.
Although the timeline is dated some things are timeless, and human sexuality is one of these. So is the myopia of policy makers who, in the face of indisputable proof, continue to pretend that the issue simply does not exist.
The book is a collection of transcribed interviews with sixteen, gay servicemen, who describe their personal experiences while stationed in Germany. Critically speaking, the experiences are not that different or unique from any other group of sexually active men this age, but what is remarkable is the network of social connections that are inadvertently revealed; red light districts, gay bars and bath houses that soon become known and frequented.
Another aspect that comes to the light in these interviews is the lack of danger or fear as a result of their sexual orientation. Some spoke of minor discrimination, and others of frustration at having to hide their orientation, but most claimed that life was not unpleasant, overall. Moreover, the overwhelming majority thought that gays represented no particular problems in military service.
The shortcomings of this study are there as well. The first is the limited scope of the sample. Virtually all the interviewees came from the same branch of the military, located in the same base. Moreover, none of the interviewees were actively engaged in combat at the time. Would their responses have been any different if that were not so? It is hard to say. Nevertheless it is a question that is still open with this reader.
With that caveat, I recommend this study as being both interesting and informative. Four stars.
Gerry Burnie,
"Two Irish Lads" & "Journey to Big Sky"
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