From Blackmail and the Closet to Pride and Shame: Homosexuality and Identity—The Military Example

Abstract

This chapter investigates how the experience of homosexuals since the late nineteenth century has transformed the phenomenon of shame from a covert and submerged feeling into a central and even celebrated identity. By following the experience of homosexuals in the military the chapter charts the prejudice operated against them and their de facto exclusion from military service throughout most of the twentieth century. Whilst they eventually received eventual recognition and the right to serve alongside their straight colleagues, this was not universally lauded within the gay community. Military service and ‘Gay Pride’ approaches were sometimes seen as gaining citizenship on heterosexual terms which turned conforming homosexuals into hyper normal citizens. Instead such critics wanted to rediscover transgressive and marginalised sexual identities through the medium of queer theory. This revitalised and rejuvenated the power of shame making it an active and thriving identity choice at the start of the twenty-first century.