For over fifteen years, the issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been debated. President Bill Clinton claims it was a necessary step; others abhor it as a repressive and impossible policy for the LGBT members of the Armed Forces. If anyone really thinks about it, can you imagine living your life in your work place never ever mentioning your loved one, what you do at night or your own children with your partner? Imagine if President Clinton publicly could never mention the existence of his wife or Chelsea? Don't think he could do it and neither should we have to do it.

With "Unfriendly Fire", Nathaniel Frank has written the definitive work on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". From its conception to its lasting impact on the Armed Forces, Frank seeks, finds and tells the truth about the policy. With an even hand, he walks us through the flawed edict's parameters, the behind scenes debates and the impact on human lives. The work is a scholarly but fine read, taking a topic that most of us feel we know everything about and catches our attention. Having been involved for years in this battle there is little that I thought I didn't know. I was wrong. I could not put this book down.

Author Frank has unearthed some startling new revelations about the creation and implementation of the policy. He is the first to really give us a behind the scenes look in the Pentagon. Among just a few of the revelations are:

-A top gay civilian Pentagon insider says that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney were privately against the gay ban

-The book contains the most in-depth interviews with Professor Charles Moskos, chief architect of the policy. It includes his last-ever interview on the topic, in which he admits he defended his policy in part because he worried he would disappoint his friends if he “turncoated.” Moskos also admits in the book that “unit cohesion” is not the real reason he opposed openly gay service; he says “Fuck unit cohesion; I don’t care about that.” Despite rooting his public opposition to openly gay service in unit cohesion, he says the real reason is the “moral right” of straights not to serve with known gays. In fact, the book reports that Moskos told lawmakers that the principal reason for the gay ban is to repress the homoerotic desire that is an inherent part of military culture. This “homoerotic thesis” explains why “don’t ask, don’t tell” does not bar the presence of homosexuality but the mention of it, and gives the lie to the “unit cohesion” ruse

-According to witnesses and activists, Sam Nunn’s hearings about gay service were “rigged” from the start. Judith Stiehm, a professor at Florida International University, found that Professor Charles Moskos, a personal friend of Nunn’s who is credited as the academic architect of the policy, “had already found an agreement” with Nunn before the hearings began. Nunn removed two witnesses when he learned they would oppose the gay ban, retired colonel Lucian Truscott III and former senator Barry Goldwater, and placed a virulently homophobic general on an “academic panel” (he was not an academic)

-General Robert Alexander, the first head of the Military Working Group, a panel of generals and admirals that essentially wrote “don’t ask, don’t tell,” acknowledged that its members did not understand what “sexual orientation” meant, and “had to define in the first few sessions what we figured they were talking about.” When Alexander warmed to the idea of letting gays serve, he was quickly removed from his position. Alexander admits in the book that the MWG “thought they knew the results of what was going to happen” before they met, and that it was “going to be very difficult to get an objective, rational review” of the policy. “Passion leads and rationale follows,” he says, adding that his group “didn’t have any empirical data” about gay service and the MWG position was based on fear, politics and prejudice

-In behind-the-scenes negotiations about the question of gay service in 1993, senior military officers who viewed the gay ban as a moral imperative consulted with military and civilian religious leaders on a dishonest strategy to claim the ban was necessary to preserve “unit cohesion” while minimizing the true religious and cultural basis of their opposition. Colin Powell reportedly wrote a “moral argument” against gay service which was distributed to top brass, and General Carl Mundy, then a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised and circulated an inflammatory anti-gay video and essay produced by leaders of the religious right

So, go to this site and buy the book now. There is a place on the site where you can buy a book for yourself and one for your Congressperson at a 50% discount. They will even send it to the Congressperson for you. Just click here. This is a spectacularly well-researched and written book