Gays in the military book

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[Shilts's] chronicle is excellent military history, closely woven with an enthralling analysis of the changing definitions of sexuality and personal relationships in American society....[A] landmark book....Remarkable."
--New York Times Book Review

"A masterpiece of investigative reporting...Shilts has shown us the honor homosexuals have brought, and continue to bring, to the uniforms they wear and the country they serve." - Boston Globe

"Gays, we are told, would damage morale in the military.

Review Quotes

"...images and interviews attesting to the struggles and triumphs, dignities and indignities of gay and lesbian service members.",
- The New York Times Sunday Review, March 9, 2014
Also featured in The Huffington Post, ABC News, Vice UK, Slate

About the Author

Documentary photographer Vincent Ciannigraduated from Penn State university, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and SUNY New Paltz.

His photographs have been exhibited at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Nasher Museum, Photographers' Gallery, London; the 7th International Photography Festival in Mannheim; and the George Eastman House.

Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S.

Military

The definitive book on lesbians and gay men in the US military.

Randy Shilts, author of the classic documentary history of the AIDS epidemic And The Band Played On, was acclaimed for his ability to take epic histories and molding them into gripping, intimate narratives.

Shilts documents the fact that morale has already been eaten away by hypocrisy, contradictions, and favoritism...This book will be to gay and lesbian liberation what Betty Friedan's was to early feminism or Rachel Carson's to ecological consciousness. With essays by Alison Nordstrom, Don Bramer and Alan Steinman shedding light on the cultural, personal, and political consequences of the ban on homosexuality, this volume tells the stories of men and women who served in silence, and oftentimes were penalized and prohibited from receiving the benefits accorded them for serving in the military.

Conduct Unbecoming, his groundbreaking exploration of lesbians and gays in the military, came out of hundreds of interviews conducted with servicepeople at all levels of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps and intense research uncovering thousands of documents resulting in a unique history of gays in the military as well as the persecution of gays in the military.

No fair-minded person can read Conduct Unbecoming and consider the present system defensible. - USA Today

"Gripping reading....the history of homosexual people and the movement for gay/lesbian equality in the United States can nowhere be more clearly told." - Los Angeles Times

Gays in the Military - (Hardcover)

About the Book

Vincent Cianni created a historical record of the struggles of gay and lesbian men and women in the US military.

Book Synopsis

Vincent Cianni adds to the historical record of the struggles of gays and lesbians in the US military.

Conduct Unbecoming will leave readers moved and imbued with a better understanding of the pressing situation in our nation's military.

"A sober, thoroughly researched and engrossingly readable history on the subject. As the Human Rights Commission attests, the US military has a long history of civil rights abuses against homosexuals, with harassment and discrimination frequently resulting in lost careers.

He teaches photography at Parsons The New School of Design, NYC. He currently lives in Newburgh, NY. Cianni's documentary work explores community and memory, the human condition, and the use of image and text. A major survey of his work was exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York in 2006. Gays In The Military: Photographs And Interviews reveals stories of men and women who served in silence in this "apt coda to an experience marked by an evolution from darkness into light."--The New York Times

Documentary photographer Vincent Ciannigraduated from Penn State university, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and SUNY New Paltz.

In many cases, these men and women—highly skilled, well-educated, patriotic, courageous, and productive—had attained high rank, received numerous medals, and held top-level jobs essential to the military. A major survey of his work was exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York in 2006.