Santa Barbara, CA — The Palm Center today announces the paperback release of the definitive book on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by Palm Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Nathaniel Frank. Coming at a pivotal moment in the renewed debate on the military policy, UNFRIENDLY FIRE: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America has been instrumental in dismantling the arguments used to prop up what Dr. Frank views as a "failed policy rooted in denial and repression."
Dr. Frank, the mostly widely recognized expert on gays in the military and the writer who broke the story of the firing of gay Arabic linguists, has spent ten years explaining the ins and outs of this policy on television, radio, blogs and in print, and now more than ever, his expertise is in demand to help the nation understand this complex, fast-moving issue.
The book makes startling allegations about the flawed process that created the current policy, and how it's failed our military and our nation. Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews, UNFRIENDLY FIRE reveals behind-the-scenes discussions by the top players responsible for the current policy, and shows how a campaign of misinformation by military officials and the religious right conspired to steamroll the gay ban into place. UNFRIENDLY FIRE also answers pressing questions people are now asking about what lies ahead: How is the current policy really working? How do gay and straight troops currently get along? What happened when other nations lifted their gay bans? What will happen if the U.S. follows suit? And more.
UNFRIENDLY FIRE contains the most extensive summary of the complete body of evidence on gay service in one volume, all of which shows the gay ban is unnecessary and harmful. The book shows that:
- Military officials admit they exaggerated the threat posed by gays to unit cohesion, while minimizing the true source of resistance to gay service: morality
- Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated an inflammatory anti-gay video and used it to argue that openly gay service would undermine the military
- Evidence was repeatedly concealed or suppressed by the military when research concluded there was no rationale for the gay ban
- The policy was not based on empirical data, but on the "prejudices and fears" of the military brass who created it
- As the current Pentagon spends a year studying the issue, there is already a 50-year record of research showing openly gay service does not harm the military
REVIEWS:
"Frank's methodology is scholarly: Thirty pages of footnotes. Ten years of study, visiting bases and academies. Reading thousands of pages and talking with hundreds of 'officers and enlisted personnel, policy makers and scholars, government personnel and civilian advocates on both sides of the debate.'"
--Military Times
"A sharp, vigorously framed analysis argued so discerningly, so substantively and so well. With agility and tough-mindedness, Mr. Frank brings hard evidence to bear on the gay ban's cost and consequences."
--New York Times
"This book should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in the state of our society or the readiness of our military."
--General John Shalikashvili, former Chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Armed Forces
"With this book, President Obama, who pledged to scrap don't ask, don't tell, has an instruction manual, as well as a blooper reel for avoiding Clinton's mistakes. Unfriendly Fire reads like a crisp, confident, tightly focused legal brief appealing an unconscionable decision; pity the opposing advocate who must answer it point by point."
--Washington Monthly
UNFRIENDLY FIRE
By Nathaniel Frank
Price: $15.99, paperback
Publication Date: March 2, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-60353-3
A Thomas Dunne Book
NATHANIEL FRANK is a senior research fellow at the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and teaches history on the adjunct faculty at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. His publications on gays in the military and other topics have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Slate, the Los Angles Times, The Huffington Post, and other publications. He has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Rachel Maddow Show," and "Anderson Cooper 360." Frank earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Brown University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
