240 pages
22 photographs
September 2014
978-1-61234-706-6
$15.95 Add to CartWhen the U.S. military repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” its official policy on homosexuality in the services, Capt. Stephen Snyder-Hill was serving in Iraq. After years enduring the culture of fear and secrecy for gay soldiers, Snyder-Hill submitted a video to a Republican primary debate, asking the participants whether, if elected, they would extend spousal benefits to legally married gay and lesbian soldiers. His video was booed by the audience on national television.
Snyder-Hill’s story riveted the nation’s attention from national news shows to an episode of HBO’s The Newsroom to comments by President Obama. Soldier of Change not only captures the media frenzy as Snyder-Hill took his place at the forefront of this modern civil rights movement but also documents his twenty-year journey as a gay man in the army, which culminated in the most important battle of his life: defending the disenfranchised.
“A moving and insightful epitaph to a destructive policy.”—Publishers Weekly
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. A Leap of Faith
2. Don’t Say Gay
3. Boot Camp and Bible Study
4. Lost and Found in Iraq
5. Pink Triangles
6. Just Be You
7. Back in the Saddle, Back in the Closet
8. This Looks Like a Gay Dude’s House
9. Jessica Josh
10. Cemetery Ceremony and Insensitive Sensitivity
11. The Debate
12. The Fallout
13. The Lawsuit
14. Prepping for the Public Eye
15. Did Rosa Parks Have a Roommate?
16. The Right to Hyphenate
17. Presidential Momentum
18. One Year of Freedom
19. All Aboard the C-BUS of Love
20. Chariots and Superheroes
21. Activism vs. Politics
22. Trust the Power of Your Voice
Epilogue