Is the navy gay
“I did it for the uplift of humanity and the Navy”: FDR's Gay Sex-Entrapment Sting
Sherry Zane sheds light on a gloomy covert operation that targeted lgbtq+ Navy men.
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On March 16, , 14 Navy recruits met secretly at the naval hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, anxiously awaiting instructions for their unused assignment. The senior operatives explained that the volunteers were free to leave if they objected to this special mission: a covert operation to entrap lgbtq+ 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 set i
I'm a British Royal Navy officer — and I'm lgbtq+. I feel favor I've had to work twice as hard as my straight peers.
Editor's note: Insider has verified the identity of the writer, but they asked to remain anonymous to retain their privacy.
On my 25th birthday, I made a life-changing decision: I joined the Royal Navy as a warfare officer. Not long after, I made another bold decision: I came out as queer to my fellow officers.
After that, one thought repeated in my head: "Don't let them deliberate gays are weak."
I repeated that consideration as I crawled through the mud in the pouring rain and stumbled over hills in the snow. It became my driving force during practice. As motivating as the thought was, I later realized I was putting myself in a box that no one else was.
Coming out as male lover in the Royal Navy went surprisingly smoothly
When I linked the Navy three years ago, I already had a degree in social sciences and secured my dream occupation. But I was still lacking something. I wanted wider life experience, real-world skills, and more confidence. When I met up with
Pride Month - Exploring Homosexual 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 found within their ranks. Execution ceased after , but life imprisonment remained a reality. The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in did little to sway the opinion of the Armed Forces, and it was not until that real 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 violent, 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 , the Royal Navy wanted to send a explain 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
Privacy notice
If you’ve peruse any of my previous blog posts on Earth War II, you already know that , women served in the newly founded women’s military servicegroups during WWII, including Army, Army Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines. Of those women, nearly , served in the Navy’s WAVES (Women Standard for Volunteer Emergency Services). With that large number in mind, it should be no surprise that some WAVES were lesbian and would likely characterize themselves as LGBTQ+ today.
While the military at this time was officially against allowing LGBTQ+ recognizing people into the military, they also were desperate for more service members. So in some ways, there was a similar mentality to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the s and s. Ben Small, a gay man who served in the Army Breeze Corps during WWII, remembered the mentality was “If they’re gay, fine. Just so long as they didn’t embarrass anybody or do anything on the premises.”
However, during enlistment, the US military actually conducted psychological screenings on potential GIs. One of the purposes of the scre