The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 3, No 3 & 4 Spring/Summer 1991.

Gays in Uniform: The Pentagon’s Secret Reports. Edited by Kate Dyer. Alyson Publications, 1990. Paper. $6.95. (ISBN 1-55583-181-8).

The irony of reviewing this book as the U.S. military commenced the “liberation of Kuwait” was not lost on this reviewer, for the U.S. Department of Defense pursues deliberate policies of prejudice, discrimination and harassment towards gays, lesbians and bisexuals in America.

Two separate studies by OOD’s Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center (PERSEREC) questioned these homophobic policies in regard to the suitability of sexual minorities for military service and national security clearances. Both reports were suppressed by Pentagon brass, but the persistent efforts of Representatives Gerry Studds and Patricia Schroeder to obtain and release them proved successful. This Alyson paperback contains both reports, commentary by Congressman Studds and editor Dyer, and internal military memorandum blasting the PERSEREC studies and their authors.

Gays in Uniform is an important document for Washington policy makers and for any American concerned with national defense and national security or with civil rights. Recommended for all federal government, academic and large public library collections.

Reviewed by Joseph M. Eagan
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Baltimore, Maryland