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It has also been referred to as an event that “a generation of gay men grew up haunted by” (Randal & Virta 2007) due to its widespread publicity and the long-running nature of the witch-hunt that took place. Now, however, it is a cornerstone to my courses that involve historical understandings of queer life, and it remains a historical event that many Idahoans are familiar with. And in the past year, the Idaho State Legislature has continued Idaho’s legacy of anti-LGBT sentiment, prosecution, and legislation through the passage of several anti-trans bills, most of which have been challenged in courts and are currently unable to be enforced.Īs a young-ish queer academic moving from coastal California to Boise in late 2015 to begin my position at Boise State, I was unaware at the time of the history surrounding this scandal, or that it had even taken place, despite having been engaged in queer linguistics and queer studies for several years.
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Just last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Idaho for its enforcement of these sodomy laws in requiring a plaintiff to register as a sex offender for an out-of-state conviction from more than 20 years ago. Texas ruling that such statutes are unlawful. In fact, legacies of this scandal still exist today, as the crimes against nature laws that created the 1955 uproar are still on the books in Idaho despite 2003’s Lawrence v.
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Occurring during a post-war period of McCarthyism that featured many “moral panic” moments, especially around sodomy and other sexual activities, the arrests and subsequent “witch-hunt” led to calls from the Idaho Stateman’s editorial board to “ crush the monster”, and became a widely publicized moment of gay panic and hysteria. In the end, dozens were arrested, charged, and convicted amid interviews with over 1,500 homosexual men in the area, the exodus of dozens of others, and a city councilman’s son being removed from West Point, eventually leading to his suicide. Now known as “The Boys of Boise” scandal, dubbed so by John Gerassi’s 1965 book of the same name, what started as the arrest of three men accused of sexual acts with underage boys became what has been called a “witch-hunt” that lasted over a year. One of the earliest moments of widespread scandal and moral panic around homosexuality, however, is often less known outside of its home region. The 1950s and 1960s saw many examples of police raids, arrests of members of the gay community, and enforcement of draconian “Crimes Against Nature” laws, often leading to the arrests of hundreds of queer individuals in cities throughout the country. However, much of what made Stonewall possible happened in the decades leading up to the infamous raid on the Stonewall Inn in 1969. When thinking of LGBTQ+ History, the most readily available moment in our collective memories is typically the Stonewall Riots, long seen as the catalyst for the gay liberation movement, and the beginning of pride celebrations throughout the United States and the world. To read more about LGBTQ+ linguistics from LGBTQ+ linguists, check out all of the COZIL Blog posts here. Chris VanderStouwe, Boise State University,