SOURCE: "Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You," in The New York Review of Books, Vol. XL, No. 15, September 23, 1993, pp. 18-23.

Stone is an acclaimed American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and critic who served in the United States Navy from 1955 to 1958. In the following excerpt, he examines the issues raised in Conduct Unbecoming.

[The United States armed forces' approach to homosexuality throughout history] is the subject of Randy Shilts's long book, Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the Military, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. Shilts's business here is advocacy, and he writes in favor of the right of gays and lesbians to serve in the US armed forces. His arguments seem to grow more reasoned and less strident as the book proceeds, and he has a good reporter's instinct for the core of a story. He begins, somewhat irrelevantly, by invoking the Sacred Band of Thebes and George Washington's...