From Rhode Island-The Roosevelts are all the buzz with the launch of Ken Burns' new PBS documentary, but one of the darkest episodes in Franklin Roosevelt's career was in Newport, RI and was ignored by Burns.
In the spring of 1919, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and his fellow officers at the Newport, Rhode Island Naval Training Station recruited enlisted sailors to investigate what they called "immoral conditions"-- homosexual activity -- in Newport through the use of entrapment. The decoys were ordered to have sex with "sexual perverts" in the community, resulting in the arrest of more than 20 sailors and 16 civilians including a prominent Episcopal Navy clergyman, Samuel Kent.
More here-
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/fdrs-dark-anti-gay-legacy-in-newport
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