A Few Good Gays: The Gendered Compromises behind Military Inclusion

313 Pages·2022·2.522 MB·English

by  Cati Connell

A Few Good Gays

A Few Good Gays
The Gendered Compromises
behind miliT ary inClusion
Cati Connell
universiTy of California press
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2023 by Cati Connell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Connell, Catherine, 1980- author.
Title: A few good gays : the gendered compromises behind military
inclusion / Cati Connell.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2022020943 (print) | lccn 2022020944 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520382688 (cloth) | isbn 9780520382695 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520382701 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Gay military personnel—United States. | Sexual
minority military personnel—United States. | Transgender military
personnel—United States. | United States—Armed Forces—Women. |
United States—Armed Forces—Minorities.
Classification: lcc ub418.g38 c665 2023 (print) | lcc ub418.g38 (ebook) |
ddc 355.0086/640973—dc23/eng/20220819
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020943
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020944
Manufactured in the United States of America
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Taylor

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Dawning of a Kinder,
Gentler US Military 1
parT 1 repealinG don’T ask, don’T Tell
1. “The Hard Work to Get Me in the Door”:
A History of the Gay Ban 27
2. “What They Do in Their Private Life, I Couldn’t
Care Less”: Striking the Homonormative Bargain 51
3. “He Acts Straight but He Has This One Thing . . .”:
Open LGB Service and Queer Social Control 83
parT 2 endinG CombaT exClusion
4. “When You Want to Create a Group of Male Killers,
You Kill the Woman in Them”: Feminine Abjection
and the Impossibility of Women Warriors 115
5. “My Problem’s Not That I’m Gay; My Problem Is
That I’m a Woman”: The Patriotic Paternalism
of Combat Exclusion 138
parT 3 removinG mediC al resTriCTions
on TransGender serviCe
6. “Once He Saw Them as Soldiers, I Knew We Had It”:
The Trans Ban Tug of War 167
7. “You Can’t Have Three Bathrooms at a Forward
Operating Position”: Gender Panic in the
Transgendering Organization 198
parT 4 ConClusion
8 . We Will Be Greeted as Gay Liberators? 229
Methodological Appendix A 243
Methodological Appendix B 254
Methodological Appendix C 256
Notes 259
References 277
Index 295
Acknowledgments
In April 2020, as the world adjusted to the sudden isolation of pandemic
life, a loose network of social scientists in desperate need of workplace
camaraderie came together to write with each other on Zoom; thank you
is far too insufficient a platitude to adequately convey the gratitude I feel
for this incredible writing collective. As the days, months, and now years
of working from home stretched on, that Zoom room became our new
office. My writing partners quite literally watched this book get written
while working on their own alongside me. They were there at midnight
the night I turned in the first draft, making confetti out of scraps of scratch
paper to celebrate as I hit submit. And they were there again the morning
I first started revising. And then for the many days and rough patches
and pep talks and tiny triumphs and minor breakdowns and major life
events that followed. Most importantly, they were my entire social world
through these years of living alone during a pandemic. Without them, I’m
not sure I could have kept going at all. With them, I have written a book
I feel proud of, and they have written brilliant articles, books, grant pro-
posals, conference papers, job materials, tenure statements, and more!
I am so lucky to have found family with Jess Simes, Dana Moss, Jackie
Jahn, Merav Shohet, Sarah Miller, Paula Austin, Sultan Doughan, and
ix