Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military [Hardcover]

Randy Shilts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997

The bestselling author of And the Band Played On follows with a book of even greater power and sweep as he investigates the situation of gays in the military over the past three decades, revealing for the first time that some of the most celebrated soldiers in American history were homosexual (including the Father of the United States Army).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 784 pages
• Publisher: World Publications (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 5551973522
• ISBN-13: 978-5551973522
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courage Unbound, July 25, 2001

By 

Marlo Messina (Burbank, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military (Hardcover)

I bought this book because my Great Aunt is a retired Colonel in the US Army, and she is a Lesbian. She was interviewed for this book and is quoted in the book. Therefore, I wanted to have a copy of this book because I feel it holds a part of my family history.

I got my copy while at work, and immediately flipped through to find the sections that spoke about my Aunt. I started reading out loud to my co-workers, and pretty soon, a small group had gathered and was raptly listening to me read aloud. I was amazed that they were interested in the stories in the book as well as touched at their outrage at the discrimination I was reading to them.

This book is very interesting and talks about a part of history many people do not realize. I'd always been so proud of my Aunt for being one of the FEW women Colonels in her day, yet I never realized the scrutiny she lived under in the Army and the constant fear of being "outed" as a Lesbian.

Gay people have contributed greatly to our United States Military, and this book recognizes that fact as well as opens our eyes to the discrimination that gay women and men fighting for our country had to face, an added burden that didn't fall on the shoulders of the heterosexual soldiers.

I would strongly recommend this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whose Conduct Is The Question !, February 3, 2001

By 

D. Eichholz "bsnmsn" (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military (Hardcover)

I knew one of the Navy men detailed in this book and the author nailed this one on the head. I was a Navy wife for many years, until my husband retired. In the great witchhunt years, when no stone was left unturned and no method nasty enough, I saw sailors who did their jobs well and with honor, but who were systemically chased and hunted down until they were forced out of service because they chose to care for someone of the same sex. I also saw innocent heterosexuals threatened and blackmailed in order to help NIS make a charge against their potential targets. There was nothing mean enough or underhanded enough that the NIS wouldn't do to make a charge stick, even resorting to lies and innuendo to force someone to entrap a suspected gay or lesbian. It shouldn't matter who you love or desire...as long as a person does his or her job with professionalism and honor. Try telling that to investigators who work without honor. The military policy is deeply flawed and I believe it has to change. Amazing, isn't it...the military swears to defend its' people, yet will go to great lengths to destroy a selected few, because of ignorance of its' own making.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Epic Masterpiece, January 30, 2004

By 

andrewjack (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the Us Military (Library Binding)

Randy Shilts?s third nonfiction novel chronicling the struggles and triumphs of the gay movement, culture, and lifestyle is perhaps the most in-depth of all his works. Exhaustively researched, and impeccably detailed, Conduct Unbecoming reads like a textbook (albeit a very interesting one) on how one of the most established institutions in the United States harassed and interrogated U.S. citizens, destroyed careers of literally thousands of men and women in uniform, and maliciously and ruthlessly discriminated against persons based upon their sexual orientation.
The Chicago Tribune essentially called this book a ?series of short stories.? Horror stories. What Randy Shilts unearthed in this stunning, massive tome is the betrayal, disloyalty, dishonesty, and hypocrisy, faced by gay and lesbian men and women who fight and die for this country. And indeed, the history of these injustices dates back many hundreds of years. The opening pages are filled with the stories of some of the very first issues of homosexuality brought up in this country by soldiers in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
However, as so eloquently told by Mr. Shilts, these transgressions by the military and government are not a thing of the distant past. They continued to happen: throughout the years of the Korean War, the distraught era of the 60s and the Vietnam conflict, the social upheaving of the 70s, the regressive epoch of the 80s under Reagan, and even the first few years of the 90s when Clinton?s widely ineffective and over-rated ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy was put into effect. However, whereas the book ends, the injustice, bigotry, and ignorance among our troops and all our people continues to grow and spread.
This is not merely a history of gay and lesbian soldiers in the U.S. military, as the subtitle states. This is a history of the entire gay movement. However, because the main focus of the story is that of gays and lesbians in the Armed Forces, the reader is not afforded every intricate detail of other social changes occurring at the same time. To ask that of Shilts would have been to ask for an entire set of encyclopedias.
With only three books, Randy Shilts is most likely my favorite nonfiction author. How unfortunate that we lost this great man and his words to a disease he spent so much of his career reporting on. We have only the legacy of his works to remind us of what a great man he was, and of all that he did for humanity.