Jeremy Pope examines masculinity as a gay Black Marine in ‘The Inspection’
Gay Black male marine, who is an artist, reads with pride ‘The Inspection’ by Tom Brown
A gay Black gay Black male Marine, a father of two, was reading The Inspection by Tom Brown, a book about the history of Black homosexuality in the military, last week.
The book tells the story of Black gay marine, whose story is similar to that of gay marines today, how he overcame his fear and his sense of loneliness to serve his country in two wars. In one interview with a Black American LGBT group, Tom Brown is said to be, ‘one of the great authors about Black people in America today.’
After The Inspection, which is set during the Second World War, Brown wrote a memoir to himself called ‘Life of a Marine.’ To do this, he joined the US Marines. His memoirs are told from his point of view and are very intimate with his life as a gay Marine.
In The Inspection however, the reader is privy to the thoughts of Tom Brown, a gay Marine in the first war, to what he calls, ‘the blackest life’ a gay Black Marine can have.
The book has been called, ‘a passionate, brilliant and heartfelt memoir’ which is full of stories of Black gay men in the military during the Second World War. Tom Brown is not just the first Black gay Marine, he was one of the first Black gay men in the US Military to serve in the US Army when it was still a segregated army.
In fact, Brown served for three years, despite being Black, until he enlisted in 1960 in the US Army. He was, in fact, the first Black man to become a second lieutenant in the US Army, and served in the military for 18 years, which is considered a success story for other Blacks in the military who have served but have never become a major figure. He was, however, never promoted into the major ranks. Black gays in the military has always been a bit of an anomaly, not because they are