Panel discussion

While American debates and actions surrounding gay marriage
and gays in the military are both clearly related to questions of civil
rights, they also stem from quite different histories and assumptions: one
from the changing meaning of marriage in American society, and one from
debates about what factors yield successful military units. As a historian
of gender and sexuality who has written on heterosexual courtship, and who
is now writing about Army recruiting and personnel policies, I will discuss
the ways in which these different debates-of-origin (which themselves
change over time) shape the currently intertwined issues of gay marriage
and military service.