Throwback Thursday: The Navy’s Newport Sex Scandal of 1919

May 29, 2025
HANK ORSO

Then there was the time when former President Franklin D. Roosevelt got an official smackdown for mismanaging a gay Naval investigation! There have always been gays in the military, and there have always been people who didn't give a care, and people who had to officially care and do something about it to root out this "perversion," but really...did they care all that much? Well, back in 1919, a Naval machinist heard about his fellow seamen gettin' some semen in town and decided to do something about it. It did not go well.

The accompanying images from IG are from an art project by artist Ryan Arthurs called "Masculine Decoys," which is based on this very moment in history.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryan Arthurs (@ryanarthursphoto)

It all started in February 1919, when sailor Thomas Brunelle and chief machinist's mate Ervin Arnold were patients at the naval hospital in Newport, RI. Brunelle had confided to Arnold about knowledge he had of gay goings on at the Army and Navy YMCA (naturally!). After release from the hospital, Arnold took it upon himself to find out for himself and discovered the clandestine gatherings involved cross-dressing, liquor, cocaine, and, of course, sex. Now, here is where you can just start reading between the lines regarding exactly how Arnold, Brunelle, and later his investigators knew exactly what was going on!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryan Arthurs (@ryanarthursphoto)

Arnold, a former detective in his civilian life, took his discoveries to his superiors, who authorised a fact-finding mission. On the basis of that, a full-out investigation was commissioned, with Arnold being the lead investigator. Now, here's where things go south. Arnold's plan was to root out the gay men, civilians, and Navy men alike, through infiltration. And just how did he infiltrate the gatherings? By hiring young, handsome sailors as decoys. Based on their youth and looks, Arnold figured they'd attract the men and report back to them. Which they did. Yup...he sent young sailors into known places where gay men met for substances and sex, who then engaged in said substances and sex, and reported their findings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryan Arthurs (@ryanarthursphoto)

The whole thing was approved by Then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Over the course of several weeks, thirteen decoys gave daily (!) reports to Arnold with graphic detail. And apparently, they didn't seem that bothered by it all. Gee, I wonder why not? Officially, the decoys were safe, not being considered to be gay as they were merely on the active side of things; they weren't bottoming, to put it frankly. Between April 4 and 22nd, fifteen sailors had been arrested, with two more late,r after those arrested were encouraged to incriminate others. A three-week trial ensued with seventeen sailors eventually court-martialled for sodomy and "scandalous conduct," with most being sent to the naval prison in Maine.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryan Arthurs (@ryanarthursphoto)

Now things get bad for the investigation. The judge was later forced to discredit the testimonies of the witnesses, the decoys, because they were either illegally forced to participate in what were then illegal sex acts by their superiors, or since they couldn't be compelled to do so, were actually willing participants and therefore unreliable witnesses. A local minister was caught up in the net and judged to be innocent. The negative press from this led a coalition of ministers to denounce the Navy's "deleterious and vicious" investigation as leading the young men down an illegal and illicit path.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryan Arthurs (@ryanarthursphoto)

A Senate committee was called to investigate Roosevelt and other top Navy brass, and in July, 1921, deemed that the whole affair "violated the code of the American citizen and ignored the rights of every American boy who enlisted in the Navy to fight for his country" as reported in the New York Times. Roosevelt had previously railed that the negative press would inhibit America's parents from allowing their sons to enlist. The NY Times also reported, with carefully guarded language due to the "unprintable nature" of the details, that the Senate committee determined that Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Roosevelt knew that "enlisted men of the navy were used as participants in immoral practices for the purpose of obtaining evidence." It was this that the committee found "reprehensible," that they would allow enlisted men to be part of "a deplorable, disgraceful, and most unnatural proceeding."