Winner, ForeWord Book of the Year Award for LGBT Nonfiction
Featured, C-SPAN’s Book TV 
Summer Reading Pick, National Public Radio

Through interviews with active duty, reserve, and retired soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, Secret Service underscores what people in uniform at both the highest and lowest echelons already know: Lesbians (and gay men) serve and have served proudly and well in all branches of the American armed forces (and openly in the militaries of many of our allies). 

They often are uncommonly dedicated – the sharpest troops found anywhere  – sporting the glossiest boots and earning the highest performance evaluations. They neither disrupt good order and discipline nor impair unit cohesion.

In Secret Service, readers meet the can-do troops who do battle with discrimination– from the high-ranking Washington-insider who closes the door to much more than her apartment when she leaves for the capitol each morning, to the rank-and-file enlistee whose make-believe boyfriend helps her fend off daily inquisitions. These women – nurses, clerks, commanders, and artillerymen – are part of an extraordinary community of dedicated professionals whose commitment extends above and beyond. They are smart. They are skilled. They are lesbian. And that fact alone – ten years after the passage of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – still means discharge.

"In probing interviews ... Gershick uncovers shocking stories of sexual assault, harassment, and witch hunts – an atmosphere made more toxic, not less, by "don't ask, don't tell."  –The Advocate

"An indictment of America's pointless and destructive policy barring gays and lesbians from serving in the military." –Publishers Weekly
 
“A ... sobering and eye-opening book chronicling the difficult life of lesbians in the military. A must-read for everyone who has ever thought about joining the military. For everyone who has served and everyone who hasn’t."  –GayWired.Com
 
“Demonstrates why lifting the ban would benefit the U.S. armed forces ... and makes it obvious that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ far from being a consistent policy, is whimsically and capriciously enforced." –Gay City News (NYC)

Secret Service was a 2005 NPR Summer Reading Pick and was featured on C-SPAN's." --Book TV."