One Foot In, One Foot Out: The Continued Struggle with Coming Out in a Hyper-Masculine U.S. Military

One Foot In, One Foot Out is a testament to the ongoing struggles that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender U.S. military service members continue to face while serving in today’s modern military. Many service members who identify as LGBT are still discriminated against and or harassed because they are out of the closet, are suspected of being gay or are involved with someone of the same sex. Dr. Nikolov shares his experience with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and the implications it had on the more than the 16,000 service members who were removed from the service solely because they were gay and makes recommendations to those contemplating coming out or who have one foot in and one foot out of the closet. He also provides advice to military leaders who seek to improve their command climate to be more inclusive and diverse and welcomes those without regard to their sexual orientation.