Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida
Encyclopedia
Florida Legislative Investigation Committee
The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee was established by the Florida Legislature in 1956, during the era of the Second Red Scare and the Lavender Scare...
of the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
led by Senator Charley Johns
Charley Eugene Johns
Charley Eugene Johns was an American politician. Johns, a Baptist, served as the 32nd Governor of Florida from 1953 to 1955.Johns was born in Starke, Florida. He worked as a railroad conductor...
. The booklet contained several pornographic images and a glossary of terminology used in the gay community. It was sold for 25 cents a copy, with a discount for bulk orders of 100 copies or more.
The Johns Committee had for several years conducted a witch hunt for homosexuals in public schools, universities, and state government agencies, believing they were part of a Communist strategy to "subvert the American way of life by controlling academic institutions and by corrupting the nation's moral fiber." By publishing its findings, the Committee hoped to persuade the Legislature to enact comprehensive anti-homosexual legislation, and to "shock Floridians into accepting its program." The report
viewed homosexuals as the carriers of a degenerative disease that posed a greater menace to society than child molesters. . . . The committee expected readers to select a theory conforming to its own views, and the pamphlet portrayed gays as sex fiends who spent every free moment searching for anonymous partners, recruiting youth, or transmitting venereal diseases.
Instead of becoming a best-seller as its authors hoped, the Purple Pamphlet provoked a backlash of criticism for its explicit photographs of gay men involved in sexual actitivies. A Dade County official threatened bring legal action against the committee, and the state Attorney General "warned the FLIC to cease distrubition of this 'obscene and pornographic' material." A gay book club in Washington, D. C., sold reprints of the pamphlet for two dollars apiece.
The backlash from the pamphlet controversy destroyed the committee, which disbanded on July 1, 1965, after the Legislature refused to continue to fund its activities. The records of the FLIC's investigations were sealed by the Legislature until 2028, although in the early 1990s, redacted copies were placed in the Florida state archives for public inspection.
External links
- Complete text of Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida, Florida Legislative Investigation Committeee, Tallahassee, 1964 (the so-called Purple Pamphlet) at the Florida Heritage Collection, State University System of Florida
- Schnur, James A. "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," Carryin' on in the Lesbian and Gay South, John Howard, ed. New York: New York University Press, 1997, pp. 132-163. An extensive, detailed account of the Johns Committee's activities, with extensive source references in the footnotes.
- The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, James T. Sears, 1997 (Internet Archives)
- Behind Closed Doors: The Dark Legacy of the Johns Committee, 1999. Documentary film.