"The Military Is the Wife and I Am the Mistress": Partners of Lesbians in the Canadian Military

Lesbian partners of servicewomen remain invisible despite policy changes regarding homosexuals in the Canadian Military. Based on interviews with these women, a defiant understanding of "the dependant wife " is presented. The everyday impact of the Military on the lives of partners, the psychological processes involved in managing such an erasing social context, and the tensions between the lesbian and military cultures are presented. RESUME Malgre les changements apportes aux politiques concernant les homosexuels dans les Forces militaires canadiennes, les conjointes des militaires lesbiennes demeurent invisibles. Des entrevues aupres de ces femmes, en brosse un portrait defiant qui ne correspond pas au terme d' « epouse dependante ». L'article traite de l'impact quotidien des pratiques militaires sur la vie de ces conjointes, des effets psychologiques qui en decoulent et de la tension qui existe entre les cultures lesbienne et militaire. In 1992, the Canadian Military officially ended its sanctioned discrimination of homosexuals (News Release/Communique " A F N: 57/92 1992). For an institution that depends on the rehearsal of cohesion in facing differences, this represented