From Sodomists to Citizens: Same-Sex Sexuality and the Progressive Era Washington State Reformatory

Abstract

I n 1911 a u t h o r I t I e s I n s p o k a n e , Washington, arrested eighteenyear-old Edward Doyle because he had “voluntarily submitted himself to carnal knowledge by one Frank Williams.” In response to police interrogation, Doyle admitted to having done this with a number of other men for at least two years and claimed that he always allowed men to perform acts on him and that he never performed the acts on anyone else. He cited the need for money and assured authorities that he “did not derive any pleasure from the act.” When it came time for sentencing, the judge, E. H. Sullivan, doubted Doyle’s claim that he was devoid of same-sex desire, but he also had faith that Doyle’s same-sex desires could be cured. Sullivan sent Doyle to serve his term at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Washington, instead of the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, where men whose same-sex desires were deemed incorrigible were generally sent. Three years later, George Chase, a businessman, sponsored Doyle for parole by offering him a job on a ranch in rural Grandview, Washington. Work there soon dried up, so Chase sought approval to send Doyle to Spokane to find steadier employment. This was a usual request within the state’s parole system, but it was met with opposition from the reformatory’s chief parole officer. In multiple letters to people involved in the case, Chief Parole Officer C. J. Webb expressed his belief that Doyle’s sexual problems arose from his exposure to urban environments: “It was distinctly understood that he should not go to a large city” and that “a year in the country would be the best thing for him.” Webb believed that Doyle was a “weak fellow” and that