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This chapter studies war novels in which various minorities—Blacks, gays, Jews and Latinos—suffer from and often oppose the military’s dominant White, Christian, “straight” ethos. Three novels—Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go, John Olliver Killens’s And Then We Heard the Thunder and James Gould Cozzens’s Guard of Honor—depict Black-White conflicts in industry (Himes) or in the racially segregated American military (Killens, Cozzens). Though the war introduces new opportunities for Blacks in industry and the military, White racism blocks or distorts these opportunities. The three novels sharply contrast in their authors’ racial perspectives: Black in Himes and Killens, exclusively White in Cozzens. Gay themes appear in John Horne Burns’s The Gallery and James Jones’s From Here to Eternity. Several novels—Mailer’s, Shaw’s, Jones’s, etc.—contrast two or more Jewish characters, and two—Shaw’s and Martha Gellhorn’s Point of No Return—show Jewish soldiers encountering the Holocaust. Finally, Mailer’s novel depicts the exploitation of a Mexican sergeant.

Chapter 5 begins the book’s examination of mass opinion change by first looking at the effects of Clinton’s endorsement of gay rights in 1992 and the 1993 gays-in-the-military debate. Using the American National Election Study, a small movement of Democrats in the public appear to have shifted more liberal on gay rights in 1992, but the magnitude of the effect was small. Likewise, the 1993 gays-in-the-military debate only resulted in polarization along political lines, not liberalization. However, declining fear of AIDS in the mid-1990s appear to have caused some attitude change. This leads to the conclusion that media coverage of gay rights in 1992 and 1993 only moved public opinion in a relatively minor fashion.

This chapter analyzes veterans’ policy preferences between the start of the Iraq War, in 2003, and 2008. Conventional wisdom describes veterans as more conservative, hawkish, and sympathetic to Republican issue areas than the general electorate. Using nationally representative survey data, these analyses, however, find that twenty-first-century veterans hold views that accord closely with the nonveteran population on most political matters. Once one controls for important correlates of political attitudes, including gender, age, race, and partisan identity, veterans resemble nonveterans on most policy preferences. On questions about domestic matters, including fundamental questions of redistribution, veterans hold the same views as nonveterans despite being a group frequently seen as a special beneficiary of government programs. On foreign policy, including attitudes toward the war in Iraq, veterans do not differ substantially from nonveterans. One notable exception is veterans’ distinctive views on gays serving openly in the military.

Shilts turns his attention to the struggle for gays and lesbians to remain in active duty for the U.S. military. Shilts highlights the struggles of Edward Modesto, Leonard Matlovich and Margarethe Cammermeyer (among others) amidst gay purges. Shilts examines efforts to repeal the gay ban in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War. Shilts traces the history of the ban military ban to include the heart-breaking story of Thomas Dooley. The issue of outing is explored with Shilts in opposition to more radical opinions that closeted persons (especially those in positions of power) should be outed. Writing process for “Conduct Unbecoming” is explored as Shilts battles life-threatening health episodes as his HIV status advances to an AIDS diagnosis.

In his campaign for president in 1992, Bill Clinton did something surprising: he advocated for gay rights. After winning the presidency, however, he was unable to integrate gay soldiers into the military as he had promised to do. Congress instead created a program known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which forced gay soldiers back into the closet. Congress also passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and allowed states to continue to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. In 1997 television star Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian both in person and in character on her TV show Ellen, becoming one of the most prominent out-of-the-closet gay people in the US.

Shilts steps out as a spokesman against gay bathhouses, admitting he once patronized them himself. ACT-UP members focus their vitriol on Shilts, Shilts turns his criticism on ACT-UP tactics. Although tapped to host a public television special, “Wrestling with AIDS,” Shilts ends a prolific year of writing about AIDS by announcing he was leaving the beat at the start of 1990. Shilts criticizes “lavender fascists” involved with the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association. Shilts states opposition to outing unless under specific circumstances. Shilts keeps focus on elimination promiscuous sexual contact among gay men as a means to stop AIDS crisis.