Coming out under fire

Based on the book of the same name by Allan Berube, who co-wrote the documentary, “Coming out under fire” interviews ten gays and lesbians who served in the military during the Second World War. Intercut with declassified military “education” films and newsreels, the interviews form a grave counterpoint to the campy, wholly ludicrious and sometimes painful stock footage where homosexuals were portrayed as darkly psychologically malevolent individuals. This entrenched homophobia resulted in anti-homosexual dragnets and entrapment schemes that caused great psychological distress to homosexuals within the military. The documentary is framed by the 1993 U.S. congressional hearings which resulted in the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the armed services, a policy which was calculated to please no-one and which was predicted to be a failure before it ever began, opening the gates once more on service-wide anti-homosexual entrapment schemes.