Even with its homoerotic frisson, this sense of absurdity reflects what was a desperately sad and destructive real-life situation for many service members. “Some of the former marines who worked on this series [as historical advisers] aren’t gay, but they found these policies just as absurd [as their gay counterparts],” Parker says, pointing to the way they seemed “completely counterintuitive to the social cohesion” at the core of military life. Cope White says his main reason for leaving the Marines after six years of service was the constant toll of lying – something Cameron has to navigate throughout the series. “The Marines is a place to find your authentic self,” he says. “But I wasn’t allowed to be my authentic self, and I couldn’t continue being inauthentic with people that I admired and respected so much.”
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These days, LGB people can serve without subterfuge – indeed, a 2015 survey of over 16,000 service members found that 5.8% of respondents identified as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. However, trans personnel find themselves in a familiar-looking quandary following a ban announced in January by President Donald Trump, which prevents them from taking any job in the US military; his executive order on the matter asserted that identifying as transgender “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honourable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle” and hampers military preparedness. In May, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed Trump to enforce his ban while legal challenges proceed.
Because of this ongoing court battle, Boots has acquired a remarkable timeliness for a period piece, says Parker. “When I sold the idea in 2020, I thought we were going to be telling a meaningful piece of history. I could not have anticipated what it would mean now in this present time, when we’re talking about [the right to serve of] trans people and seeing a similar cruelty inflicted.”
Frank believes that “national defence has always acted as a staging ground for debates over what it means to be an American” because of its unique place in the collective psyche. “For anti-gay activists, letting gay people serve their country in uniform threatened to reveal something they did not want to acknowledge – that gay people were not self-centred hedonists who belonged on the margins of American society,” he says. In Cope White’s eyes, any kind of exclusion is anathema to the very idea of military service. “We ask young people from all walks of life to come together and [potentially] give their lives to protect our constitution,” he says. “Anybody willing and qualified to serve should not just be allowed to serve – they should be embraced and celebrated.”
Boots is available to stream on Netflix now.
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