Franklin d roosevelt gay
I recently argued that the blog, Born This Way, may give the impact that dressing or acting in ways consistent with the other sex when you are a child is a True Sign that you are male lover. This is obviously not the case, as almost all of us can find a photo from our childhood in which we’re breaking gender norms; it also conflates gender performance and sexual orientation (leaving out “lipstick lesbians” and “butch” same-sex attracted men) and it locks the GLBTQ movement into a biological argument for acceptance, an argument I believe is short-sighted.
The idea that wearing a dress or seeming girly is a signal that one is gay is also completely ahistorical. If wearing a dress as a child means boys are queer, then there should have been essentially no straight men for much of American history. Until the 1920s, infants and small children, whether male or female, were dressed and looked alike, often in lengthy hair and dresses (source: Jo Paoletti). Behold, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945):
Roosevelt may or may not contain been gay then, but this outfit and hairdo certainly cannot be interpret to suggest that he was, at least not anymore than it can for
Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok
These photos come from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. They all fall under public domain, as per the organization's website.
About the couple:
Eleanor Roosevelt's name may ring a familiar bell for history lovers. She was the First Lady of the United States and wife to President Franklin D. Roosevelt! Therefore, it may be surprising to learn of her long rumored romantic relationship with Lorena Hickok.
The women met when Hickok, a prominent journalist, was tasked to write articles about the President and his wife. It is thought that the two soon caught feelings for each other, and Hickok left the newspaper because she feared she was compromising her journalistic integrity4. However, the women didn't separate after she left her job -- instead, she moved into the White House and started working as a staff member4.
For obvious reasons (Roosevelt's marriage and homophobia), their romantic relationship was never publically confirmed. However, the two women did share a strong bond, as evidenced in their many, many letters3 -- two of which are featured
“In 1919, Navy Secretary [Josephus] Daniels – whose crusade against sin went far beyond banning wine in the officers’ mess – became concerned about lesbian behavior among sailors in Newport, Rhode Island.
“This was almost 75 years before ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and almost a century before being gay was removed as a barrier to military service. Then, homosexuality was a very serious offense.
“Daniels ordered the base commander to clean things up, and the solution he start was to arrange up a sting operation, using modern sailors as bait. To be certain the men they entrapped were indeed homosexuals, the recruits – some as young as 16 – were allowed to submit to fellatio – and praised for their ‘zeal’ in the investigation when they did so. As assistant secretary of the navy, FDR had signed off on the sting while Daniels was abroad, but denied knowing the sordid details.
“The case erupted…. Headlines laid the scandal at Roosevelt’s feet, with the story on the front page of the New York Times declaring the details to be ‘unprintable.’”
— From “The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency” by Sherry Zane sheds light on a dusky covert operation that targeted homosexual Navy men. BeeLine Reader uses subtle color gradients to help you study more efficiently. On March 16, 1919, 14 Navy recruits met secretly at the naval hospital in Newport, Rhode Island, anxiously awaiting instructions for their recent assignment. The senior operatives explained that the volunteers were free to abandon if they objected to this special 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 put in place. In this episode of the MIT Press podcast, podcaster Chris Gondek talks to Sher
“I did it for the uplift of humanity and the Navy”: FDR's Lgbtq+ Sex-Entrapment Sting