When Straight Guys Go Gay – Perverts by Official Order

It’s not porn, but I thought you might find this interesting:

What will it take for a straight guy to go gay? About five beers and a few shots of Tequila? Maybe a couple months in the slammer?

Try just a few weeks in the United States Navy during a time when homosexuality was not just grounds for dishonorable discharge, but for a full-scale criminal investigation and, if found guilty, incarceration. Yes, it happened: dozens of young straight naval recruits “went gay,” and with no small degree of enthusiasm, at the Newport Naval Training Station in Rhode Island in 1919. But, straight guys who’re reading this, take a deep breath and relax: these Navy Boys were just following orders.

Read the rest for a review of the book Perverts by Official Order: The Campaign Against Homosexuals by the United States Navy. I’m always interested in books about straight male homoeroticism in the military, whether that homoeroticism is caused by boredom, camaraderie,  or in this particular case — enforced by decree. Looks like another one for the bookshelf.

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