It seems I spent most of my life uninterested in knowing about the military because I supported peace, the fight to end violence and injustice, and the sanctity of life. My convictions were so strong that I was ready to flee to Canada if my number came up in the draft. I was a somewhat clueless but politically aware high school kid and hippie college student when the Vietnam conflict became the Vietnam War. Vincent Cianni: I grew up during the cultural and political upheaval of the 1960s, during the height of the Cold War. VICE: Why do you have such an interest in this subject? We called up Cianni to talk about about the book and his experience of meeting the people who were part of such an oppressive system. The subjects range from a 92-year-old WW2 veteran to those who recently served in Afghanistan. Cianni's book features photographs and interviews gathered on road trips across America over the course of three years, asking what made LGBT people want to serve an institution that neglected to accept them, and what long-term effects this had on them. Today, serving in the military can still be an experience rife with prejudice. It's no secret, then, that for gay people serving in the military, the road up until 2011-when the policy was scrapped-was rife with silent suffering, PTSD, and in some cases, even suicide.
