cover image About Face: A Gay Officer's Account of How He Stopped Prosecuting Gays in the Army and Started Fighting for Thei

About Face: A Gay Officer's Account of How He Stopped Prosecuting Gays in the Army and Started Fighting for Thei

James Kennedy. Carol Publishing Corporation, $19.95 (302pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-281-0

This is an interesting account of a double life. As an army lawyer, Capt. James Kennedy prosecuted homosexual soldiers while closeting his own homosexuality. Finally he ended the pretense, resigned his commission and assisted the Clinton administration in revising its policy toward gays in uniform. The author's personal odyssey is a moving story of self-awareness and self-affirmation. General readers will find even more interesting Kennedy's firsthand account of the armed forces' complex gay subculture, which, he writes, includes those of the highest ranks. His assertion that one post-WWII commandant of the Marine Corps, unnamed here, was gay or bisexual will cause fierce speculation. Within the community of gays in uniform, networking and mutual protection are significant distinguishing responses to traditional official policies. Such clandestine behavior benefits neither individuals nor institutions, opines the author. (May)