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 anti-homosexual policies and procedures of the military. In this book, Allan Bérubé examines in depth and detail these social and political confrontations -- 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.

"Why we fight" --Getting in -- Fitting in -- GI drag : a gay refuge -- "The gang's all here" : the gay life and vice control -- The fight for reform -- Pioneer experts : psychiatrists discover the gay GI -- Comrades in arms -- Fighting another war -- Rights, justice, and a new minority -- The legacy of the war.