Coming Out Under Fire

This Peabody Award-winning documentary reveals the experiences of gays and lesbians in the American military during World War II. It is based on the 1990 book Coming Out Under Fire by independent scholar Allan Bérubé, who won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1996. Interviews, documentary material, and newly declassified information show how these men and women fought for their nation against fascism and their right to serve. The military adopted homophobic policies, such as interrogations, forced psychiatric treatments, prison sentences, and dishonorable discharges, to remove gays and lesbians from service.