Freedom to Differ by Diane Miller

Diane Miller examines the arguments lesbians and gay men make for civil rights, showing how they are both progressive, in helping to win cases for basic rights, and limiting, in how they frame representations of gay men and lesbians. Her case studies center on lesbians in the military and in politics: Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, discharged from the National Guard after 27 years of service when she revealed she was a lesbian, and Roberta Achtenberg, nominated by President Clinton as an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the first openly lesbian or gay nominee to face Senate confirmation. From these cases Miller weighs the advantages and drawbacks of civil rights strategies in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights.