2 - Gender, Sexuality and the Profession of Arms

Summary

This chapter begins with the Army’s position in the 1993 debate over allowing gay personnel to serve openly in the US military. The chapter argues that the generals’ arguments for maintaining the ban on gay people in the military centred on the notion that the military was an exceptional institution within US society, with claims about the need for combat cohesion and the maintenance of a ‘band of brothers’ paramount in their approach to the issue. When it came to the question of women’s service in the military, the debate played out on very similar lines. As with gay soldiers, critics argued that the presence of women would negatively affect the cohesion of these close-knit outfits. Not only that, but a series of sexual assault scandals prompted right-wing critics of the military to contend that the Army should discontinue gender-integrated recruit training and further restrict the role of women in the Army. This went in tandem with complaints that recruit training was now too soft, and that the Army should look to the Marine Corps for an example for how to recruit and train warriors.