"This will give you an idea of how the men dress over here. Notice his short pants? They're made of leather." ~Lorraine Hurdle, Photo with an elderly man in Germany, ca. 1950s Lorraine Hurdle was a Black lesbian woman who served as a…

“I wanted to be accepted by the army for two reasons. Foremost was my great desire to belong, to be needed, and to join the stream of activities around me. Second, I wanted my parents to be proud of me. Almost invariably when my name was mentioned,…

"It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers. My subordinates know I'm gay.…

“As soon as I read that there were millions of us, I said to myself, well, it’s perfectly obvious that what we have to do is organize, and why don’t we identify with other minorities, such as the blacks and the Jews? I had never known a black, but I…

"Lots of boys enlisted under the wrong name. So did I. The country needed men, and I wanted excitement. I worked on an Illinois farm as a man the year before the war. I wasn't discovered and thought I'd try my luck in the service."~Albert Cashier,…