Crittenden Report
Encyclopedia
The Crittenden Report was the outcome of a 1957 investigation on the part of a United States Navy
Board of Inquiry
, officially known as the Board Appointed to Prepare and Submit Recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy for the Revision of Policies, Procedures and Directives Dealing With Homosexuals. Navy Captain S.H. Crittenden, Jr., chaired the Board.
The Board evaluated Navy policies dealing with homosexual personnel that were based in part on the assertions made in the December 1950 final report of the Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Expenditure in Executive Departments, which said that all of the government's intelligence agencies "are in complete agreement that sex perverts in Government constitute security risks." Senator Clyde Hoey
, Democrat of North Carolina
, chaired the subcommittee that produced the report, sometimes known as the Hoey Report or the Hoey Investigation.
The Crittenden Report, by contrast, concluded that there was "no sound basis for the belief that homosexuals posed a security risk" and criticized the Hoey Report: "No intelligence agency, as far as can be learned, adduced any factual data before that committee with which to support these opinions" and said that "the concept that homosexuals necessarily pose a security risk is unsupported by adequate factual data." It advocated stringent anti-homosexual policies on grounds unrelated to national security. It said homosexuality was "one of the very bad things in life...about which the majority of people know little or nothing....Homosexuality is wrong, it is evil, and it is to be branded as such....Homosexuality is an offense to all decent and law-abiding people, and it is not to be condoned on grounds of 'mental illness' any more than other crimes such as theft, homicide or criminal assault."
The Crittenden Report remained secret until 1976. Navy officials claimed they had no record of studies of homosexuality, but attorneys learned of its existence and obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request. In September 1981, the Navy was still unable to fulfill a request for the Report's supporting documentation, specifically parts 2 and 3 of the Report, which contain "copies of directives and memoranda regarding homosexual policies, verbatim testimony from Navy officials on the evolution of the World War II wartime antigay policies, and an unidentified 'confidential supplement'."
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
Board of Inquiry
Public inquiry
A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...
, officially known as the Board Appointed to Prepare and Submit Recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy for the Revision of Policies, Procedures and Directives Dealing With Homosexuals. Navy Captain S.H. Crittenden, Jr., chaired the Board.
The Board evaluated Navy policies dealing with homosexual personnel that were based in part on the assertions made in the December 1950 final report of the Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Expenditure in Executive Departments, which said that all of the government's intelligence agencies "are in complete agreement that sex perverts in Government constitute security risks." Senator Clyde Hoey
Clyde R. Hoey
Clyde Roark Hoey was a Democratic politician from North Carolina. He served in both houses of the state legislature and served briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1919 to 1921. He was North Carolina's governor from 1937 to 1941. He entered the U.S...
, Democrat of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, chaired the subcommittee that produced the report, sometimes known as the Hoey Report or the Hoey Investigation.
The Crittenden Report, by contrast, concluded that there was "no sound basis for the belief that homosexuals posed a security risk" and criticized the Hoey Report: "No intelligence agency, as far as can be learned, adduced any factual data before that committee with which to support these opinions" and said that "the concept that homosexuals necessarily pose a security risk is unsupported by adequate factual data." It advocated stringent anti-homosexual policies on grounds unrelated to national security. It said homosexuality was "one of the very bad things in life...about which the majority of people know little or nothing....Homosexuality is wrong, it is evil, and it is to be branded as such....Homosexuality is an offense to all decent and law-abiding people, and it is not to be condoned on grounds of 'mental illness' any more than other crimes such as theft, homicide or criminal assault."
The Crittenden Report remained secret until 1976. Navy officials claimed they had no record of studies of homosexuality, but attorneys learned of its existence and obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request. In September 1981, the Navy was still unable to fulfill a request for the Report's supporting documentation, specifically parts 2 and 3 of the Report, which contain "copies of directives and memoranda regarding homosexual policies, verbatim testimony from Navy officials on the evolution of the World War II wartime antigay policies, and an unidentified 'confidential supplement'."
See also
- Don't ask, don't tellDon't ask, don't tell"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...
- Executive Order 10450Executive Order 10450President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 in April 1953, effective May 27, 1953. It revoked Truman's 1947 Executive Order 9835 and dismantled its Loyalty Review Board...
- Lavender scareLavender scareThe Lavender Scare refers to the fear and persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s in the United States, which paralleled the anti-communist campaign known as McCarthyism....
- McCarthyismMcCarthyismMcCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
Sources
- Timothy Haggerty, "History Repeating Itself: A Historical Overview of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Military before 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'," in Aaron Belkin and Geoffrey Bateman, eds., Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Debating the Gay Ban in the Military (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003)
- Allan Bérubé, Coming out under fire: the history of gay men and women in World War Two (NY: Free Press, 1990)
- E. Lawrence Gibson, Get Off my Ship : Ensign Berg vs. the U.S. Navy (NY: Avon, 1978)
- David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (University of Chicago Press, 2004)
- Jennifer Terry, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society (University of Chicago Press, 1999)