Perverts by Official Order

Download or read book Perverts by Official Order written by Lawrence Murphy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This candid book documents for the first time the U.S. Navy’s use of entrapment in pursuit of homosexuals in and around Newport, Rhode Island, during the early twentieth century. This most extensive systematic persecution of gays in American history occurred with the approval of Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary Franklin Roosevelt, as dozens of sailors were ordered to identify and even seduce gay men in order to report their names to the authorities. Noted historian Lawrence Murphy reveals the details of this sordid campaign that ultimately generated a national scandal and first raised issues of gay rights and governmental persecution of homosexuals.