Marine Corps asks & tells: New book explores the transition from gay ban - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

Marine Corps asks & tells: New book explores the transition from gay ban

It’s no secret the Marine Corps was the most reluctant of the services to lift the ban on open military service by gays. That’s why many may be surprised to learn that the Corps is the first service to publish a book celebrating the success of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Published six months after the Pentagon lifted the restrictions, the book is a collection of four scholarly studies and 25 essays by a diverse group of gay and straight, current and former military members from the Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force.

Dubbed “The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” the 254-page anthology is published by Marine Corps University Press. Because of high demand, the Government Printing Office has taken over printing of the book.

Topics range from the experience of foreign militaries that have made the same transition to deeply personal accounts of serving in the U.S. military as a gay man or lesbian. Some essayists were writing as openly gay service members for the first time, said J. Ford Huffman, a frequent Military Times book reviewer who co-edited the book with Marine Corps War College professor Tammy Schultz.

“I was surprised and amazed that so many people saw the importance of this and were willing to, in effect, put their careers on the line by writing about it,” Huffman says. “As we know, while legally you can be gay and be in the military now, that’s not necessarily the case culturally yet.”

Indeed, Marine Commandant Gen. Jim Amos lobbied against allowing gays to serve openly, saying he was worried such a change would be a distraction during wartime and could cost lives. By all accounts, however, the transition has gone smoothly. At the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in November, a female Marine introduced her lesbian partner to Amos’ wife.

“Bonnie just looked at them and said, ‘Happy birthday ball. This is great. Nice to meet you,’” Amos said recently. “That is happening throughout the Marine Corps.”

“Maybe that’s the news story,” says Huffman. “There is no controversy.”