Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Newport Sex Scandal

A forgotten bit of American queer history involves future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the YMCA, and a bunch of Navy men who liked to have sex with each other in the early 20th century. Often referred to as the Newport sex scandal, this episode in American queer and military history shone a light on the underground culture of men who had sex with men long before Stonewall. What began as one man’s moral crusade against homosexuality shortly after the end of World War I turned into a national moral panic that made it’s way all the way to the United States Senate.