Gender and Sexuality

The presentation of gender and sexuality in the novel is varied. At the beginning of the war, it is not only encouraged, but martial law that the men and women in UNEF have sex with both assigned and chosen partners. All of the assignments and choices are heterosexual and no one seems to think of having it any other way. Then, after decades away due to time dilation, the troops of the first campaign return to Earth to a world where a large percentage of people are homosexual, strongly recommended by the government as a form of population control. When Mandella takes on his own Strike Force, he is the only heterosexual in his company and he is referred to as the "Old Queer." Finally, at the end of the war, Earth is made up of bisexual clones who do not reproduce sexually, but utilize a...