Today in History, 1961: Florida Legislative Committee Calls Schools “Veritable Refuge for Practicing Homosexuals”

Jim Burroway

May 25th, 2016

Rep. William G, O’Neill (D-Ocala), chairman of the Legislative Investigations Committee.

That charge was levied in a report by the Florida Legislative Investigations Committee, which was Florida’s homegrown version of the McCarthy Red and Lavender Scares from a decade earlier. Known popularly as the Johns Committee for its first chairman, state Senator and former acting Governor Charley Johns, it was established in 1956 to investigate alleged communist links to the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1957, the Legislature broadened the committee’s mandate to investigate gays in the state’s colleges and universities. In 1961, just as that mandate was about to expire, the Johns committee issued a biennial report to the Legislature which claimed that it found evidence that eight men in Miami were operating a “call ring” which put teenage boys “through what amounts to a regular course in training in homosexual acts. When properly trained they are made available to older homosexuals the same as female prostitutes.”

The report, filed by Rep. William G, O’Neill (D-Ocala), the committee’s chair, alleged that the men “converted” school boys between 13 and 17 years old to “homosexual practices” by the use of pornography, liquor, and “narcotic drugs.” It also said that three of the eight men had been arrested. This investigation, the report added, was “one of the most important and serious investigations it (the committee) has ever made, but disclosure of details now would destroy the work.” ONE magazine was skeptical of the charges:

It seems to this reporter that there have been entirely too much acceptance of alleged happenings as reported by investigative bodies or individuals who are never required to give absolute and irrefutable proof. We have for years been hearing about supposed homosexual “rings” and “clubs” that serve their memberships play-boy style. I defy anyone to show me one.

ONE was right to be skeptical, as no such case has ever hit Florida’s newspapers as far as I’ve been able to determine.

The report was far from finished however. Under the heading, “Homosexual Conduct on the Part of State Employees, Particularly in the Field of Education,” the report reminded the Legislature that since July 1, 1959, 39 teachers’ certificates had been revoked, and there were another 14 cases pending before the State Board of Education. “The committee is in possession of sworn testimony concerning homosexual conduct in excess of 75 additional public school teachers,” the report said (see Apr 22 for the case of five teachers from St. Petersburg). “Practicing homosexuals,” the report warned, “almost invariably turn to the recruitment of young people as sex partners… Practically all children are susceptible to being recruited into homosexual practices at one stage or another of their development… [and a] homosexual teacher, having direct supervision over numerous children, can and does do tremendous damage to quite a large group of children when the teacher turns to the recruitment of young sex partners.”

The report then scolded school administrators, saying that “with few exceptions, there is an almost uniform inability or unwillingness on the part of the responsible administrators to cope actively, aggressively and effectively with the problem. … The combination of administrators ignoring the problem and his [administrator’s] lenient dealing with the individual when caught makes the public education system in Florida a veritable refuge for practicing homosexuals.”

The committee’s report had its intended effect: the Florida Legislature approved an additional appropriation of $75,000 to the Johns Committee and renewed its charter for another two years and added a mandate  to look into “the extent of infiltration of agencies supported by state funds by practicing homosexuals and the policies of state agencies in dealing therewith.” Now, the Committee was specifically authorized to do what it had been doing all along without legislative authorization. And the following year, 1962, Florida saw the second highest number of teacher investigations on record. In 1963, the Committee said that its work still was not done so the Legislature renewed its charter again for two additional years. In 1964, the fruits of that “exhaustive investigation” were finally made public when the Johns Committee issued its final report, “Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida” (Mar 17). Known as the “purple pamphlet” for the abstract purple cover that was added to obscure the more provocative photos inside, the report was blasted as an exercise in taxpayer-funded pornography. The Legislature responded to the controversy by finally pulling funding for the committee and forcing its disbanding.

[Sources: Karen L. Graves. And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida’s Purge of Gay and Lesbian Teachers (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009).

“Del Mcintire” (pseudonym for Don Slater).  “Tangents” column. ONE 9, no. 7 (July 1961): pages 18-19.

Associated Press. “Committee Reports: State School System A Homosexual Refuge?” Ft. Pierce News Tribune (May 25, 1961): page 1.

United Press. “Legislative Probe Group Requests Crackdown on School Homosexuals.” St. Petersburg Times (May 26, 1961): page 10A.

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