Perverts by Official Order: The Campaign Against Homosexuals by the United States Navy (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780918393449)

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.

Author: Lawrence Murphy
ISBN-10: 0918393442
ISBN-13: 9780918393449
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 09/08/1988
Pages: 354
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 8.40h x 6.03w x 0.92d