Netflix’s new dramedy, Boots — a show about a young gay man who joins the Marines — is inspired by Greg Cope White’s memoir, The Pink Marine . The book chronicles the author’s transformative experience going through boot camp in 1979. At the time, gay service members were banned from the military , forcing White to hide an important part of his identity — at least for a while. As he recently told The New York Times , “The Marines definitely gave me the confidence to come out, which I know is ironic.”

Boots isn’t a beat-for-beat adaptation (for example, it’s set in 1990, not 1979) but Cope White worked as a writer on the series, so it still bears his imprint — especially when it comes to the tenor of the series’ conclusion.

Here’s how The Pink Marine’ s hopeful book ending

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