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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 directions for their modern assignment. The senior operatives explained that the volunteers were free to abandon 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 place in place.

In this episode of the MIT Press podcast, podcaster Chris Gondek talks to Sher

GI Rights Hotline

A member must be…WHEN there is an approved evidence the…UNLESS there are further approved findings that…THEN the administrative board may recommend…
separatedmember made a remark that he/she is a lesbian or bisexual, or words to that effectthe member has demonstrated that he/she does not involve in, or have a propensity to engage in, homosexual act(s). (See Notes 1 and 2.)retention
 member committed homosexual act(s)
  • such acts are a departure from the members usual behavior; and
  • such acts are unlikely to recur; and
  • such acts were not accomplished by exploit of force, coercion, or intimidation; and
  • under the particular circumstances of the case, the members continued presence in Navy is consistent with Navy's interest in pleasant order and discipline, and morale; and
  • the member does not possess a propensity to engage in homosexual acts. (See Note 1)
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.) 
retainedboard does not find suf

This June the National Archives is commemorating National Woman loving woman, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month, which honors the important contributions that LGBTQ+ Americans contain made to U.S. history and culture.Visit our website for more information.Today’s send 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 grasp 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 gay 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 record gives us communication about his family, his childhood, and his service in the Navy. Documents in it include a copy of his birth certificate, his high university transcript, and his application to become an officer. 

Pride Month 2023 - Exploring LGBTQ+ history in the Royal Navy

The Queer and Now

For three hundred and ten years the Royal Navy hunted down, persecuted and sometimes even hanged homosexuals launch within their ranks. Execution ceased after 1861, but being imprisonment remained a reality. The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 did little to sway the opinion of the Armed Forces, and it was not until 2000 that real transform was made. 

The Royal Navy were not alone in their persecution of homosexuals, or indeed anybody else from within the LGBTQ+ collective, 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 become 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 label the 20th anniversary of the prohibit on homosexuals serving in the forces being lifted in 2020, naval bases an