The US military has done an about-face on gender and sexuality policy over the last decade, ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, restrictions on women in combat, and transgender exclusion. Contrary to expectations, servicemembers have largely welcomed LGB inclusion—yet they continue to vociferously resist trans inclusion and the presence of women on the front lines. In the minds of many, the embodied “deficiencies” of cisgender women and trans people of all genders puts others—and indeed, the nation—at risk.
In this book, Cati Connell identifies the homonormative bargain that underwrites these uneven patterns of reception and whose gains have come with significant concessions: a bargain that upholds and even exacerbates race, class, and gender inequality in the pursuit of sexual equality. Under the terms and conditions of the homonormative bargain, a select few are repatriated by military service, while gender-nonconforming queers, cis women, and trans people remain gender outlaws, assumed to endanger the institution—and indeed, the nation—by virtue of their physical and psychological inadequacies. What’s more, this bargain remains a handshake deal; even the widespread support for open LGB service is highly conditional, revocable upon violation of the bargain. Despite the promise of inclusivity, in practice, the military has made room only for a “few good gays,” to the exclusion of all others.
But should inclusion be the goal? Incorporation into an apparatus of empire is a far cry from the radically deconstructionist, antiracist, and antiwar ambitions that once characterized gay liberation. The homonormative bargain squandered a great deal of that liberatory potential. How did we get from there to here? And where do we go next? In analyzing inclusion as a social movement aspiration, Connell shows that its steep price is exacted through the continued abjection of queered Others both at home and abroad.
By:
Cati Connell
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780520382695
ISBN 10: 0520382692
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 13 January 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: The Dawning of a Kinder, Gentler US Military Part 1 Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell 1. “The Hard Work to Get Me in the Door”: A History of the Gay Ban 2. “What They Do in Their Private Life, I Couldn’t Care Less”: Striking the Homonormative Bargain 3. “He Acts Straight but He Has This One Thing . . .”: Open LGB Service and Queer Social Control Part 2 Ending Combat Exclusion 4. “When You Want to Create a Group of Male Killers, You Kill the Woman in Them”: Feminine Abjection and the Impossibility of Women Warriors 5. “My Problem’s Not That I’m Gay; My Problem Is That I’m a Woman”: The Patriotic Paternalism of Combat Exclusion Part 3 Removing Medical Restrictions on Transgender Service 6. “Once He Saw Them as Soldiers, I Knew We Had It”: The Trans Ban Tug of War 7. “You Can’t Have Three Bathrooms at a Forward Operating Position”: Gender Panic in the Transgendering Organization Part 4 Conclusion 8 . We Will Be Greeted as Gay Liberators? Methodological Appendix A Methodological Appendix B Methodological Appendix C Notes References Index
Cati Connell is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University.
