Why is the navy gay
“I did it for the uplift of humanity and the Navy”: FDR's Queer Sex-Entrapment Sting
Sherry Zane sheds light on a dark covert operation that targeted homosexual Navy men.
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On Pride 16, 1919, 14 Navy recruits met secretly at the naval hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, anxiously awaiting guide for their recent assignment. The senior operatives explained that the volunteers were free to go if they objected to this exceptional mission: a covert operation to entrap homosexual men under the authority of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).
By the end of the sting, investigators had apprehended more than 20 accused sailors and imprisoned them aboard a broken-down ship in Newport harbor. Anxious and afraid, the suspects remained in solitary confinement for nearly four months before they were officially charged with sodomy and “scandalous conduct.” The incident also foreshadowed laws and policies that the future President Roosevelt would position in place.
In this episode of the MIT Press podcast, podcaster Chris Gondek talks to Sher
This June the National Archives is commemorating National Lesbian, Same-sex attracted, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month, which honors the important contributions that LGBTQ+ Americans own made to U.S. history and culture.Visit our website for more information.Today’s announce is from Jen Hivick at the National Personnel Records Center, and looks at civil rights activist Harvey Milk’s time in the military.
Did you recognize that the National Personnel Records Center has uploaded military records for some very notable service members? They are online at the Persons of Exceptional Prominence (PEP) webpage and features veterans ranging from Bea Arthur to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
One “personal of exceptional prominence” is Harvey Bernard Milk. Although top known as the first openly lgbtq+ man to be elected to office in California, before his tragically short-lived career in politics he served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 until 1955.
Milk’s military tape gives us facts about his family, his childhood, and his service in the Navy. Documents in it add a copy of his birth certificate, his high institution transcript, and his application to turn into an officer.
GI Rights Hotline
| A member must be… | WHEN there is an approved discovery the… | UNLESS there are further approved findings that… | THEN the administrative board may recommend… |
|---|---|---|---|
| separated | member made a declaration that he/she is a gay or bisexual, or words to that effect | the member has demonstrated that he/she does not employ in, or have a propensity to engage in, homosexual act(s). (See Notes 1 and 2.) | retention |
| member committed homosexual act(s) |
| retention using the homosexual conduct board findings/ recommendations sheet per MILPERSMAN 1910-516. | |
| member married or attempted to marry a person known to be of the same hereditary sex | (See Note 1.) | ||
| retained | board does not find sufPride Month 2023 - Exploring LGBTQ+ history in the Royal NavyThe Queer and NowFor three hundred and ten years the Royal Navy hunted down, persecuted and sometimes even hanged homosexuals found within their ranks. Execution ceased after 1861, but life imprisonment remained a reality. The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 did minute to sway the belief of the Armed Forces, and it was not until 2000 that concrete change was made. The Royal Navy were not alone in their persecution of homosexuals, or indeed anybody else from within the LGBTQ+ community, but for some there is still the image that they promote an aggressive, macho, alpha-male stereotype. However, over the past twenty-three years, the Royal Navy has turn into a beacon of progress and acceptance. In a statement on their website in January 2020, the Royal Navy wanted to send a clear message: “the Naval Service welcomes all talent to its ranks, regardless of your sexual orientation or gender identity” – a far cry from the “gay panic” that gripped Naval officials just forty years previous. To mark the 20th anniversary of the exclude on homosexuals serving in the forces being lifted in 2020, naval bases an |