question

[Liza Featherstone]

Cynthia Enloe's new book, Maneuvers: The International Politics of
Militarizing WOmens Lives, has a good analysis of this -- she argues that
the human interest stories, as framed by both the mainstream media and the
mainstream gay movement, reinforced the notion that people who want to serve
in the military are by definition admirable citizens. That the gays in the
military campaign actually helped legitimize the military and affirmed the
idea of military service as a noble calling. I think that's a big part of
how it became such a big deal in the U.S. -- public sentimentality about
military heroism combined with pressing government interest in fostering
that sentimentality. 

Liza

----------
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: RE: question
>Date: Sat, Feb 26, 2000, 10:46 PM
>


>On seeing Angela's question about how the gays in the military thing 
>became such a big deal in U.S. politics, I forwarded it to Hunter 
>College poli sci prof Ken Sherrill, who knows everything about gay 
>politics. Here's his answer:
>
>>I think the answer is that we used the military issue as an extreme test of
>>politicians' allegiance to the cause and the politicians thought that
>>movement leaders cared about the issue. It was a great measure of the
>>commitment of Democratic politicians. I also think thta the human interest
>>stories captured the press.
>
>Doug