Out of the Closet

The status of American culture in the year 2000 indicates a liberalized change in attitude toward lesbians and gays, particularly in the area of military service. However, the military is staunchly opposed to full inclusion of known lesbians and gays in its ranks and, like other controversial social issues, has failed to consider a plan for implementing full integration in the event current policy should change. The paper seeks to answer the question whether previous social changes within a military institution can provide an experiential basis for prescribing a contingency plan in the event known lesbian and gay persons are granted permission to serve in the US military. The paper concludes that, although past military social transformations cannot provide an exact blue print for integration of lesbians and gays, the experiences can provide a framework. The highly controversial and historic integration of black soldiers in the US military in 1948 and Canada’s litigious complete integration of lesbian and gay soldiers in 1992, together provide the social construct to which a change model for large organizations is applied and used for analysis and the paper’s conclusions. The paper argues for anticipating change and initiating an early start to the planning process and to shaping operations. Most importantly, the paper argues for visionary leadership. The monograph concludes that a contingency plan is needed, and suggests a conceptual framework for the planThis work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.