Tris Speaker

Tristram Edgar Speaker (April 4, 1888 – December 8, 1958), nicknamed "the Gray Eagle", was an American professional baseball player. Considered one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), he compiled a career batting average of .345 (sixth all-time). His 792 career doubles represent an MLB career record. His 3,514 hits are fifth in the all-time hits list. Defensively, Speaker holds career records for assists, double plays, and unassisted double plays by an outfielder. His fielding glove was known as the place "where triples go to die."

After playing in the minor leagues in Texas and Arkansas, Speaker debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1907. He became the regular center fielder by 1909 and led the Red Sox to World Series championships in 1912 and 1915. In 1915, Speaker's batting average dropped to .322 from .338 the previous season; he was traded to the Cleveland Indians when he refused to take a pay cut. As player-manager for Cleveland, he led the team to its first World Series title. In seven of his eleven seasons with Cleveland, he finished with a batting average greater than .350. Speaker resigned as Cleveland's manager in 1926 after he and Ty Cobb faced game-fixing allegations; both men were later cleared. During his managerial stint in Cleveland, Speaker introduced the platoon system in the major leagues.

Speaker played with the Washington Senators in 1927 and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928, then became a minor league manager and part owner. He later held several roles for the Cleveland Indians. Late in life, Speaker led a short-lived indoor baseball league, ran a wholesale liquor business, worked in sales and chaired Cleveland's boxing commission. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. He was named 27th in the Sporting News 100 Greatest Baseball Players (1999) and was also included in the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

## Early life

Speaker was born on April 4, 1888, in Hubbard, Texas, to Archie and Nancy Poer Speaker. As a youth, Speaker broke his arm after he fell from a horse; the injury forced him to become left-handed. In 1905, Speaker played a year of college baseball for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. Newspaper reports have held that Speaker suffered a football injury and nearly had his arm amputated around this time; biographer Timothy Gay characterizes this as "a story that the macho Speaker never disspelled [sic]." He worked on a ranch before beginning his professional baseball career.

Speaker's abilities drew the interest of Doak Roberts, owner of the Cleburne Railroaders of the Texas League, in 1906. After losing several games as a pitcher, Speaker converted to outfielder to replace a Cleburne player who had been struck in the head with a pitch. He batted .318 for the Railroaders. Speaker's mother opposed his participation in the major leagues, saying that they reminded her of slavery. Though she relented, for several years Mrs. Speaker questioned why her son had not stayed home and entered the cattle or oil businesses.

He performed well for the Texas League's Houston Buffaloes in 1907, but his mother stated that she would never allow him to go to the Boston Americans. Roberts sold the youngster to the Americans for \$750 or \$800 (equal to \$ or \$ today). Speaker played in seven games for the Americans in 1907, with three hits in 19 at-bats for a .158 average. In 1908, Boston Americans owner John I. Taylor changed the team's name to the Boston Red Sox after the bright socks in the team's uniform. That year, the club traded Speaker to the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern League in exchange for use of their facilities for spring training. Speaker batted .350 for the Travelers and his contract was repurchased by the Red Sox. He logged a .224 batting average in 116 at-bats.

## Major league career

### Early years

Speaker became the regular starting center fielder for Boston in 1909 and light-hitting Denny Sullivan was sold to the Cleveland Naps. Speaker hit .309 in 143 games as the team finished third in the pennant race. Defensively, Speaker was involved in 12 double plays, leading the league's outfielders, and had a .973 fielding percentage, third among outfielders. In 1910 the Red Sox signed left fielder Duffy Lewis. Speaker, Lewis and Harry Hooper formed Boston's "Million-Dollar Outfield", one of the finest outfield trios in baseball history. Speaker was the star of the Million-Dollar Outfield. He ran fast enough that he could stand very close to second base, effectively giving the team a fifth infielder, but he still caught the balls hit to center field. In 1910 and 1911, Boston finished fourth in the American League standings.

Speaker's best season came in 1912. He played every game and led the American League (AL) in doubles (53) and home runs (10). He set career highs with 222 hits, 136 runs, 580 at-bats, and 52 stolen bases. Speaker's stolen base tally was a team record until Tommy Harper stole 54 bases in 1973. He batted .383 and his .567 slugging percentage was the highest of his dead-ball days. Speaker set a major league single-season record with three hitting streaks of 20 or more games (30, 23, and 22). He also became the first major leaguer to hit 50 doubles and steal 50 bases in the same season. In August, Speaker's mother unsuccessfully attempted to convince him to quit baseball and come home. In Fenway Park's first game, Speaker drove in the winning run in the 11th inning, giving Boston the 7–6 win.

The 1912 Red Sox won the AL pennant, finishing 14 games ahead of the Washington Senators and 15 games ahead of the Philadelphia Athletics. In the 1912 World Series, Speaker led the Red Sox to their second World Series title by defeating John McGraw's New York Giants. After the second game was called on account of darkness and ended in a tie, the series went to eight games. The Red Sox won the final game after Fred Snodgrass dropped an easy fly ball and later failed to go after a Speaker pop foul. After the pop foul, Speaker tied the game with a single. The Red Sox won the game in the bottom of the tenth inning. He finished the series with a .300 batting average, nine hits and four runs scored. Speaker was named the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) for 1912. Though he did not lead the league in any offensive categories in 1913, Speaker finished fourth in AL MVP voting. Speaker batted .338 and tied his career high of 12 double plays as an outfielder in 1914. He hit .322 in 1915. The Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1915 World Series. The Red Sox were led by pitcher Babe Ruth, who was playing in his first full season. Ruth won 18 games and hit a team-high four home runs. Speaker got five hits, including a triple, in 17 at-bats during the series. He scored twice but did not drive in any runs.

### Traded to the Indians

After 1915, Red Sox president Joseph Lannin wanted Speaker to take a pay cut from about \$15,000 (equal to \$ today) to about \$9,000 (equal to \$ today) because of the drop in his batting average; Speaker refused and offered \$12,000 (\$ today). On April 8, 1916, Lannin traded Speaker to the Cleveland Indians. In exchange, Boston received Sad Sam Jones, Fred Thomas and \$50,000 (\$ today). The angry Speaker held out until he received \$10,000 (equal to \$ today) of the cash that Boston collected.

For many years, this was considered the worst trade in Red Sox history, and was thought to be far more damaging to the Red Sox than the sale of Babe Ruth more than four years later, even though the Red Sox won the World Series in 1916 and 1918. In his book about the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, Emperors and Idiots, Mike Vaccaro recalled that for some time, "Red Sox fans shook their head(s) in fury" when recalling the trade. Vaccaro recalled that no one knew in the winter of 1919-20 that Ruth would blossom into a superstar. In contrast, Speaker had established himself as "indisputably the best player in the American League" by 1916.

With an annual salary of \$40,000 (equal to \$ today), Speaker was the highest paid player in baseball. Speaker hit over .350 in nine of his eleven years with Cleveland. In 1916, he led the league in hits, doubles, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Cobb had won the previous nine consecutive AL batting titles; Speaker outhit him with a .386 batting average compared to Cobb's .371. The center field fence at Cleveland's Dunn Field was 460 feet (140 m) from home plate until it was shortened to 420 feet (130 m) in 1920. Even so, Speaker played so shallow in the outfield that he was able to execute six career unassisted double plays at second base, catching low line drives on the run and then beating baserunners to the bag. At least once he was credited as the pivot man in a routine double play. He was often shallow enough to catch pickoff throws at second base. At one point, Speaker's signature move was to come in behind second base on a bunt and make a tag play on a baserunner who had passed the bag.

While in Cleveland, Speaker participated in diverse activities off the baseball field. Speaker enrolled in an aviator training program in 1918. Though World War I ended less than two months after he enrolled, Speaker completed his training and served in the naval reserves for several years. He also owned a ranch in Texas and competed in roping events during the baseball offseason.

### Stint as player-manager

From the day that Speaker arrived in Cleveland, he was effectively assistant manager to Lee Fohl, who rarely made an important move without consulting him. George Uhle recalled an incident from 1919 during his rookie year with the Indians. Speaker often signaled to Fohl when he thought that a pitcher should be brought in from the bullpen. One day, Fohl misread Speaker's signal and brought in a different pitcher than Speaker had intended. To avoid the appearance of overruling his manager, Speaker let the change stand. Pitcher Fritz Coumbe lost the game, Fohl resigned that night and Speaker became manager. Uhle said that Speaker felt bad for contributing to Fohl's departure.

Speaker guided the 1920 Indians to their first World Series win. In a crucial late season game against the second-place White Sox, Speaker caught a hard line drive hit to deep right-center field by Shoeless Joe Jackson, ending the game. On a dead run, Speaker leaped with both feet off the ground, snaring the ball before crashing into a concrete wall. As he lay unconscious from the impact, Speaker still held the baseball. In the 1920 World Series against Brooklyn, Speaker hit an RBI triple in the deciding game, which the Indians won 3–0. Cleveland's 1920 season was also significant due to the death of Ray Chapman on August 17. Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays. Chapman had been asked about retirement before the season, and he said that he wanted to help Speaker earn Cleveland's first World Series victory before thinking of retirement.

During that championship season, Speaker is credited with introducing the platoon system, which attempted to match right-handed batters against left-handed pitchers and vice versa. Sportswriter John B. Sheridan was among the critics of the system, saying, "The specialist in baseball is no good and won't go very far... The whole effect of the system will be to make the players affected half men... It is farewell, a long farewell to all that player's chance of greatness... It destroys young ball players by destroying their most precious quality – confidence in their ability to hit any pitcher, left or right, alive, dead, or waiting to be born." Baseball Magazine was supportive, pointing out that Speaker had results that backed up his system.

The 1921 Indians remained in a tight pennant race all year, finishing 4+1⁄2 games behind the Yankees. The Indians did not seriously contend for the pennant from 1922 through 1925. Speaker led the league in doubles eight times, including every year between 1920 and 1923. He led the league's outfielders in fielding percentage in 1921 and 1922. On May 17, 1925, Speaker became the fifth member of the 3,000 hit club when he hit a single off pitcher Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. Only Napoleon Lajoie had previously accomplished the feat as a member of the Indians. AL President Ban Johnson asked Speaker and Detroit manager Cobb to resign their posts after a scandal broke in 1926. Pitcher Dutch Leonard claimed that Speaker and Cobb fixed at least one game between Cleveland and Detroit. In a newspaper column published shortly before the hearings were to begin, Billy Evans characterized the accusations as "purely a matter of personal revenge" for Leonard. The pitcher was said to be upset with Cobb and Speaker after a trade ended with Leonard in the minor leagues. When Leonard refused to appear at the January 5, 1927, hearings to discuss his accusations, Commissioner Landis cleared both Speaker and Cobb of any wrongdoing. Both were reinstated to their original teams, but each team declared its manager free to sign elsewhere. Speaker did not return to big league managing and he finished his MLB managerial career with a 617–520 record.

At the time of his 1926 resignation, news reports described Speaker as permanently retiring from baseball to pursue business ventures. However, Speaker signed to play with the Washington Senators for 1927. Cobb joined the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season; he played part time and finished with a .267 average. Prior to that season, Speaker had not hit for a batting average below .300 since 1908. Speaker's major league playing career ended after 1928. He retired with 792 doubles, an all-time career record. Defensively, Speaker holds the all-time career records for assists as an outfielder and double plays as an outfielder. He remains the last batter to hit 200 triples in a career.

## Later life

In 1929 Speaker replaced Walter Johnson as the manager of the Newark Bears of the International League. In two seasons with Newark, he also appeared as a player in 59 games. When Speaker resigned during his second season, the Bears were in seventh place after a sixth-place finish in 1929. In January 1933 he became a part owner and manager of the Kansas City Blues. By May, Speaker had been replaced as manager but remained secretary of the club. By 1936, he had sold his share of the team. In 1937, Speaker was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during its second year of balloting. He was honored at the hall's first induction ceremony in 1939.

After his playing and managing days, Speaker was an entrepreneur and salesman. By 1937, Speaker had opened a wholesale liquor business and worked as a state sales representative for a steel company. He chaired Cleveland's boxing commission between 1936 and 1943. Newspaper coverage credited Speaker with several key reforms to boxing in Cleveland, including the recruitment of new officials and protections against fight fixing. Under Speaker, fight payouts went directly to boxers rather than managers. Speaker sorted out a scheduling conflict for a 1940 boxing match in Cleveland involving former middleweight champion Teddy Yarosz. Yarosz defeated Jimmy Reeves in ten rounds and the fight attracted over 8,300 spectators.

In 1937, Speaker sustained a 16-foot fall while working on a flower box near a second-story window at his home. Upon admission to the hospital, he underwent facial surgery. He was described as having "better than an even chance to live" and was suffering from a skull fracture, a broken arm and possible internal injuries. He ultimately recovered.

In 1939, Speaker was president of the National Professional Indoor Baseball League. The league had teams in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. The league shut down operations due to poor attendance only two months after its formation. Speaker was one of the founders of Cleveland's Society for Crippled Children and he helped to promote the society's rehabilitation center, Camp Cheerful. Speaker served as vice president of the society, ran fundraising campaigns and received a distinguished service award from the organization. He became seriously ill with pneumonia in 1942. Speaker ultimately recovered, but Gay characterized Speaker's condition as "touch-and-go for several days". In 1947, Speaker returned to baseball as "ambassador of good will" for Bill Veeck and the Cleveland Indians. He remained in advisory, coaching or scouting roles for the Indians until his death in 1958. In an article in the July 1952 issue of SPORT, Speaker recounted how Veeck hired him in 1947 to be a coaching consultant to Larry Doby, the first black player in the AL and the second in the major leagues. Before the Indians had signed Doby, he was the star second baseman of the Newark Eagles of the Negro leagues. A SPORT photograph that accompanied the article shows Speaker mentoring five members of the Indians: Luke Easter, Jim Hegan, Ray Boone, Al Rosen and Doby. Speaker was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1951. Texas was the first state to establish a state sports hall of fame and Speaker was in its inaugural induction class.

## Death

Speaker died of a heart attack on December 8, 1958, at the age of 70, at Lake Whitney, Texas. He collapsed as he and a friend were pulling their boat into the dock after a fishing trip. It was his second heart attack in four years. Speaker was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Hubbard, Texas.

After Speaker's death, Cobb said, "Terribly depressed. I never let him know how much I admired him when we were playing against each other... It was only after we finally became teammates and then retired that I could tell Tris Speaker of the underlying respect I had for him." Lajoie said, "He was one of the greatest fellows I ever knew, both as a baseball player and as a gentleman." Former Boston teammate Duffy Lewis said, "He was a team player. As great a hitter as he was, he wasn't looking out for his own average ... Speaker was the bell cow of our outfield. Harry Hooper and I would watch him and know how to play the hitters."

## Legacy

Immediately after Speaker's death, the baseball field at the city park in Cleburne, Texas, was renamed in honor of Speaker. In 1961, the Tris Speaker Memorial Award was created by the Baseball Writers' Association of America to honor players or officials who make outstanding contributions to baseball. In 1999, he ranked number 27 on the Sporting News*' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Speaker is mentioned in the poem "Line-Up for Yesterday"* by Ogden Nash.

In 2008, former baseball players' union chief Marvin Miller, trying to defend the recently retired catcher Mike Piazza against claims that he should not be elected to the Hall of Fame because of association with the use of steroids, on the basis that the Hall of Fame has various unsavory people in it, opined that Speaker should be removed from the Hall of Fame because of alleged membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Miller said, "Some of the early people inducted in the Hall were members of the Ku Klux Klan: Tris Speaker, Cap Anson, and some people suspect Ty Cobb as well. I think that by and large, the players, and certainly the ones I knew, are good people. But the Hall is full of villains." Miller's comment about Anson has no basis, other than speculating that he could have been a Klansman since he was a racist during his playing career, which ended in 1897, although he was umpiring games with black players by 1901, including featuring the all-black Columbia Giants. Miller, age 91 at the time the 2008 article appeared, is the earliest source for declaring that it is factual that Anson was a member of the Klan, based purely on an Internet search of sources that try to link Anson to the Klan. By contrast, Speaker-Cobb-Rogers Hornsby biographer Charles C. Alexander, a Klan expert in his general history writings, told fellow baseball author Marty Appel, apparently referring to the 1920s (Anson died in 1922), “As I’ve suggested in the biographies, it’s possible that they [Speaker, Cobb and Hornsby] were briefly in the Klan, which was very strong in Texas and especially in Fort Worth and Dallas. The Klan went all out to recruit prominent people in all fields, provided they were native born, Protestant and white.”

Baseball historian Bill James does not dispute this claim in apparently referring to Speaker and possibly Cobb, but says that the Klan had toned down its racist overtures during the 1920s and pulled in hundreds of thousands of men, including Hugo Black. James adds that Speaker was a staunch supporter of Doby when he broke the American League color barrier, working long hours with the former second baseman on how to play the outfield.

## Regular season statistics

## Managerial record

## See also

- Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
- List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
- List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball doubles records
- List of Major League Baseball hit records
- List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
- List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball triples records

American baseball player

National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees

Newark Bears (International League) players


Douglas Applegate

Douglas Earl Applegate (March 27, 1928 – August 7, 2021) was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from Ohio's 18th congressional district from 1977 to 1995, as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure in the United States House of Representatives he served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1961 to 1968, and in the Ohio Senate from 1969 to 1974.

Applegate was born in Steubenville, Ohio, the son of mayor and state representative Earl Applegate, and was educated at Steubenville High School. He was elected to the state house in the 1960 election alongside Michael Blischak in a multi-member district and later became the sole representative from the district after defeating Blischak in 1962. He served in the state house until his election to the state senate in the 1968 election. During his tenure in the state senate he defeated incumbent Republican senators John Longsworth and Kenneth F. Berry.

Applegate had planned on running to succeed Wayne Hays in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1978 election, but was selected to replace Hays as the Democratic nominee in the 1976 election after Hays resignation. He served until his retirement in the 1994 election during which he served on the Transportation, Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs committees. His ideological belief and ratings were mixed and ranged from liberal to conservative with the Americans for Democratic Action giving him scores between 5% and 80% while the American Conservative Union gave him scores ranging from 12.50% to 64.86%.

Applegate ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1988 primary as a favorite son. He only sought the six delegates from his districts, of which he won one, and voted for Michael Dukakis at the Democratic National Convention. He attempted to have Senator John Glenn, whom he had supported in the 1984 primary, be given the vice-presidential nomination, but was unsuccessful. Applegate died in 2021.

## Early life and education

Douglas Earl Applegate was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on March 27, 1928, to Earl Applegate, who served as mayor of Steubenville and in the Ohio House of Representatives. He graduated from Steubenville High School in 1947, and became a licensed real estate broker in 1956. Applegate had two children with his wife Betty. He was a Presbyterian.

## Career

### Ohio legislature

#### Elections

Applegate and Michael Blischak were given the Democratic nomination to run for seats in the Ohio House of Representatives in the 1960 election and defeated Republican nominees Ed Griffith and William G. Powell. On January 19, 1962, Applegate announced that he would run for reelection and as the multi-member district was eliminated he ran in the Democratic primary against Blischak. He defeated Blischak in the primary and won reelection against Republican nominee Edward V. Miller in the general election. He won reelection in 1964 and 1966.

Applegate announced on January 29, 1968, that he would seek the Democratic nomination for a seat in the Ohio Senate from the 30th district. He defeated former Senator Danny D. Johnson, former Representative Joseph Loha, and former Representative Stuart Henderson in the Democratic primary. He defeated incumbent Republican Senator John Longsworth in the general election, being the only person in Ohio to defeat an incumbent state senator in the 1968 election, after spending \$2,585.53 during the campaign.

Following the 1972 reapportionment of districts Applegate's 30th district was redrawn to include Republican Senator Kenneth F. Berry, who was originally from the 19th district. Berry won renomination in the Republican primary against William A. Wallace while Applegate faced no opposition. Applegate defeated Berry in the general election.

#### Tenure

In 1963, Applegate was selected to serve on the twelve-member House Democratic Policy committee. During his tenure in the state house he served on the Elections and Federal Relations, Health, and Reference committees. During his tenure in the state senate he served on the Commerce, Finance, Finance and Elections, Labor, and Ways and Means committees. The Energy and Environment committee was created in 1974, and Applegate was selected to chair the committee.

Minority Leader Anthony O. Calabrese appointed Applegate to a five-member Democratic advisory committee to determine which Democratic senators would be placed onto committees for the 110th General Assembly. During his tenure he served on the Ohio Controlling Board, Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission, Legislative Service Commission, and the Agriculture and Conservation committees. In 1970, he was selected by Calabrese to serve as Assistant Minority Leader.

Applegate served as an at-large delegate from the Ohio's 18th congressional district to the 1964 Democratic National Convention and served as a member of the sixteen-member delegation, nine from the Ohio Senate and seven from the Ohio House of Representatives, to the second inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson. He served as the campaign manager of Michael E. Entinger's primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for Ohio State Treasurer in 1966.

Applegate supported Representative Wayne Hays during the 1970 gubernatorial election and wanted to be the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Applegate was one of the candidates included in a straw poll conducted by the Democratic Party in Clark County which was won by Robert E. Cecile. Anthony O. Calabrese Jr. won the lieutenant gubernatorial nomination, but lost in the general election to Republican nominee John William Brown.

In 1965, Applegate was named as one of America's outstanding young men by the U.S Junior Chamber of Commerce and was also nominated for the Ohio League of Young Democrat Clubs for their John F. Kennedy award.

### U.S. House of Representatives

#### Elections

Applegate announced in 1975, that he would run for a seat in the United States House of Representatives from the 18th congressional district in the 1978 election after Representative Hays announced that he would run for governor in the 1978 election. Hays withdrew from the 1976 election following a sex scandal and later resigned from the house. Fourteen of the eighteen Democratic leaders in the 18th congressional district voted in favor of Applegate, who was running against Alan Sherry and Joseph Loha, to replace Hays on the first ballot and then voted unanimously on the second ballot to give the nomination to Applegate on August 16. Applegate initially sought reelection to the state senate in the 1976 election, but Kinsey Milleson was later selected to replace him following Applegate's replacement of Hays.

Representative John Wargo accused Applegate of having been selected by Hays to succeed himself, but Applegate stated that Wargo was overreacting and that he had no political debts to Hays. He selected former Representative Robert T. Secrest to serve as his honorary campaign chair. Applegate defeated Republican nominee Ralph R. McCoy and independent candidate William Crabbe, who was the mayor of Steubenville, in the 1976 election.

Applegate announced that he would seek reelection on January 13, 1978, and won against Republican nominee Bill Ress. Hays, who had been elected to the state house, considered running against Applegate in the 1980 Democratic primary, but chose not to citing his health and pleas from Applegate's supporters. He defeated Republican nominee Gary L. Hammersley in the 1980 election.

Applegate won reelection in the 1982 election against Joseph Holmes' write-in candidacy. He defeated Republican nominee Kenneth Burt Jr. in the 1984 election. Applegate defeated Michael Palmer, a follower of Lyndon LaRouche, in the 1986 Democratic primary and faced no opposition in the general election. He defeated Republican nominee William C. Abraham in the 1988 election. He filed for reelection on February 14, 1990, and defeated Republican nominee John Hales in the 1990 election. He defeated Ress in the 1992 election.

Applegate announced that he would not seek reelection on January 3, 1994. His decision made him the twenty-fourth incumbent in the House of Representatives to announce that they would not seek reelection in the 1994 elections. He formed a political action committee to use the remaining \$150,186 in his campaign funds. He served as the honorary chair of Jim Hart's, who was his chief of staff, campaign to succeed him in the house. His district was targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican nominee Bob Ney defeated Democratic nominee Greg DiDonato in the election.

#### Tenure

During Applegate's tenure in the house he served on the Transportation, Public Works and Veterans' Affairs committees. He sought a position on the Veterans' Affairs committee at the urging of Robert T. Secrest, who served as his campaign manager and on the committee during his tenure in the house. When he was appointed to the Veterans' Affairs committee in 1977, he replaced James V. Stanton, who had left to unsuccessfully run for the Democratic senatorial nomination. He served as the chair of the Transportation Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Applegate and Representatives Charles Vanik, Don Pease, Mary Rose Oakar, and Tom Luken lobbied for Thomas L. Ashley to be given the position of chair of the Budget committee for the 95th United States Congress. In 1978, the Lorain Journal and Mansfield News Journal ranked Applegate as one of the five least effective members of Ohio's house delegation alongside Charles J. Carney, Samuel L. Devine, Tennyson Guyer, and Del Latta. He served as the chair of the Ohio Democratic congressional delegation during the 96th United States Congress until he asked for Louis Stokes to take over for him.

Applegate chose to stay neutral during the 1980 Democratic presidential primary between President Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy and hoped to attend the Democratic National Convention as an uncommitted delegate. He proposed a plank to the Democratic platform calling for the increased use of coal to reduce the United States' dependence on oil from other countries. He supported Senator John Glenn during the 1984 Democratic presidential primary.

### Presidential campaign

Applegate proposed a favorite son coalition with Representative James Traficant to bring a focus on regional issues during the 1988 Democratic presidential primary stating that "our districts are contiguous and our problems are parallel". Both men would run to gain the delegates from their congressional districts. Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown stated that candidates would be allowed to appear on the presidential and other ballot lines. He ruled that despite laws preventing a candidate's name from appearing on the ballot twice the presidential ballot line did not count as the voters were voting for delegates and not the candidate themselves.

Applegate announced on November 23, 1987, that he would run for president although he stated that "I don't have any great illusions of being sworn in as president of the United States" and would instead focus on winning the six delegates from his district. Norma Agostini, the chair of the Harrison County Democratic Party, supported Applegate's campaign. During his campaign Applegate raised \$18,297 and spent \$18,290.

Applegate received 25,068 votes in the Ohio primary where he won one county and delegate. He placed second in the 18th congressional district behind Michael Dukakis. He stated that he had succeeded in his goal in putting the issues facing the 18th congressional district before multiple presidential delegates and that he and his one delegate would lobby Dukakis at the national convention. He was later unsatisfied with Dukakis' stance and plan for acid rain and stated that he might vote for himself, as he was an unpledged delegate, with Jane Eberts, the delegate he won in Ohio, as a protest vote. Penny Federspill served as an alternate delegate for Applegate. Applegate gave his support to Dukakis after an aide told him that Dukakis would work with him on acid rain legislation. He received zero delegate votes for the presidential nomination.

Applegate was in favor of Glenn being given the vice-presidential nomination and created 10,000 bumper stickers for a Dukakis-Glenn ticket. Applegate and Marcy Kaptur worked together in support of Glenn and wrote letters to 210 Democratic members of Congress, who attended the convention as superdelegates, stating that Glenn would help Dukakis in gaining the votes of blue-collar voters who had supported Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. He was critical of Dukakis' selection of Lloyd Bentsen stating that it would hinder the campaign as "Bentsen doesn't have the national image and there's very little that he can do for the Midwest, at least as far as I can see. John Glenn can do more for the South than Bentsen can in the Midwest, and the polls showed that."

## Later life

During the 2006 election Applegate endorsed Zack Space for the Democratic nomination in the 18th congressional district against Ralph Applegate, who he had to state that he did not support nor was related to. Jason Wilson, who worked as a congressional intern for Applegate in 1990, was elected to the state senate in the 2006 election. He moved to Spring Hill, Florida later in his life and his wife died on June 5, 2020, before his death on August 7, 2021.

## Political positions

### Crime

Applegate wrote a letter to Governor Michael DiSalle in 1961, asking him to halt all executions, but DiSalle stated that the "law of Ohio is such that I do not feel I could legally create a freeze on executions". He and Representative Sam Landes introduced legislation in the Ohio House of Representatives that would have made Ohio's laws against obscene movies more strict. Applegate proposed legislation while serving in the Ohio House of Representatives that would make it illegal to huff glue or nail polish to become high and instituted a \$25 fine for first-time offenders and a \$50 fine for further violations. Applegate proposed legislation to the state senate in 1971, that would have the state subsidize the salaries of full-time police, deputy sheriffs, and firemen at the county, municipal, or town level.

Applegate stated that "I'm against any gun control", but voted in favor of a seven-day waiting period for handgun purchases in 1988. He voted in favor of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and Federal Assault Weapons Ban and stated that "I hated to have to sway the vote" on the assault weapons ban due to the House of Representatives voting 216 to 214 on the legislation. He voted in favor of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

Applegate proposed a resolution to the Ohio Senate which called for President Richard Nixon to commute William Calley's sentence. Applegate, Senator Robin Turner, and Senator Robert Secrest sponsored a resolution, which was passed by a unanimous vote in the state senate, to honor J. Edgar Hoover for his forty-seven years in law enforcement. In 1984, he voted against legislation which would have granted amnesty to illegal immigrants.

### Economics

Applegate was one of fifteen Democrats who voted in favor of Governor Jim Rhodes' \$1.3 billion budget in 1963. In 1973, the state senate voted nineteen to fourteen, with Applegate voting in favor, in favor of a \$9.9 billion budget proposed by Governor John J. Gilligan. He was given a score of 21% by the United States Chamber of Commerce in 1982. He voted in favor of a balanced budget amendment in 1982.

In 1979, Applegate voted in favor of a ten percent budget cut for the United States Department of State which would have reduced its budget by over \$200 million. Applegate opposed abolishing the United States Department of Veterans Affairs after an advisory panel appointed by President Ronald Reagan made a report suggesting that the department's responsibilities could be divided into other departments.

The House of Representatives voted 282 to 131, with Applegate in favor, in favor of the Tax Reduction and Simplification Act of 1977 although the house and Applegate voted against a permanent tax cut proposed by the Republicans. He voted in favor of legislation to give a \$1.5 billion bailout to Chrysler. He opposed an 10¢ fee on gasoline proposed by Carter. He voted in favor of raising the minimum wage from \$3.35 to \$4.55 in 1989.

A fifty-page report listed Applegate as one of the Democratic members of the state senate controlled as a block by the Ohio AFL–CIO which was denied by Frank W. King, the head of the Ohio AFL-CIO. The House of Representatives voted 217 to 205, with Applegate in favor, against legislation to increase the power of construction workers to picket. The AFL-CIO gave him a score of 69% in 1982. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

### Environment

In 1971, Applegate introduced legislation on Earth Day that would amend Ohio's Constitution to give the right to clean air, pure water, and a healthful environment to present and future generations. He requested an investigation by the Ohio Pollution Control Board into pollution in Yellow Creek after two people gave him samples of the creek showing that the water was highly acidic. He proposed legislation that would increase the power of the Ohio Air Pollution Control Board, give local governments the ability to adopt air pollution standards if they were less strict than the standards of the board, and increase the penalty for violations of the legislation.

Applegate co-sponsored legislation to reorganize Ohio's state cabinet to establish a state Department of Environmental Protection which would combine the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Health, Water Pollution Control Board, and the Air Pollution Control Board. He opposed sulphur dioxide emissions controls imposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the use of Ohio coal in 1977, stating that "If adopted, this plan would cause economic disaster in the Ohio Valley." He voted in favor of reducing the EPA's budget by \$133 million in 1978.

Applegate was given a score of 35% by the League of Conservation Voters in his first year in office in 1977, and his last year in 1994, with a lifetime score of 46%. His lowest score from the organization was 25% in 1988, and his highest score was 75% in 1990. The Sierra Club gave him a score of 44% in 1984.

### Equality

Applegate voted in favor of an amendment to a defense appropriations bill which prohibited the usage of the money on abortions except for when the life of the mother is at risk. Noel Vaughn, the chair of the Freedom of Choice Coalition, stated that Applegate was one of Ohio's congressmen who had introduced and supported anti-abortion legislation. He voted in favor of an amendment to legislation in 1981, to prohibit the usage of federal employee medical insurance to pay for abortions unless the life of the mother was at risk. He and six other anti-abortion member of the house filed an amicus curiae in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. In the 1980s he considered changing his anti-abortion views and voted against the Hyde Amendment in 1989.

Applegate voted against extending the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights gave him a rating of 80% in 1984.

### Foreign policy

Applegate voted in favor of legislation to remove the government of Zaire as the distributor of rice from the United States in the country and instead have the rice distributed by private relief organizations. He supported the creation of a Liaison Office with Taiwan and opposed permanent normal trade relations with China. In 1980, he voted against an amendment to move the United States' embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He supported legislation to create a radio station to broadcast programs that opposed Fidel Castro.

The House of Representatives voted 208 to 2015, with Applegate against, in favor of repealing the military aid embargo against Turkey. He voted against prohibiting the United States from manufacturing nerve gas for chemical warfare. He supported a nuclear freeze and a reduction of nuclear weapons. He voted against sending \$14 million in military aid to the Contras during the Nicaraguan Revolution and stated that the money should instead be spent on humanitarian aid and later voted against giving \$100 million and \$48 million in military aid.

Applegate co-sponsored legislation by James Traficant which would have the United States end its protection of Kuwait's oil tankers unless Kuwait allowed the United States' minesweeping helicopters to operate from their country. He cosponsored legislation by John Kasich to end the production of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit due to its cost and lack of use following the end of the Soviet Union. He called for another investigation into the turret explosion of the USS Iowa. He opposed sending American soldiers to Saudi Arabia, criticized President George H. W. Bush's plans in the Persian Gulf, and voted against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 1991. Applegate voted against withdrawing American soldiers from Somalia in 1993.

Applegate voted in favor of withholding \$90 million in aid to Syria after Syrian soldiers killed Lebanese Christians and later supported giving \$50 million in aid to victims of the Lebanese Civil War. He voted against a resolution allowing the United States Marine Corps to stay in Lebanon for an additional eighteen months and he later supported withdrawing the United States' soldiers from Lebanon after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings.

Applegate voted against a resolution urging for the national rugby team of South Africa to not be allowed to play in the United States due to the country's apartheid policies. He voted in favor of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act and voted to override Reagan's veto of the legislation.

Applegate voted in favor of prohibiting aid or trade to Cuba and Vietnam. Applegate, Tony P. Hall, Bob McEwen, Tom Kindness, Ralph Regula, and Mike DeWine helped present petitions by the Veterans Vigil Society requesting for the full accounting of the 2,490 Americans that were missing in action in Indochina to Speaker Tip O'Neill in 1984.

Applegate was given a score of 100% by the American Security Council Foundation in 1980, and was the only Democratic member of Congress from Ohio to receive a 100%. Applegate received score of 71% by the Nuclear Control Institute which was above the overall 47% they gave the house.

### Flag desecration

In 1967, Applegate proposed legislation in the Ohio House of Representatives which would increase the penalties for the desecration of the American and Ohio flags by increasing the maximum fine from \$100 to \$1,000 and increasing the prison sentence from thirty days to one year. He stated that the point of the legislation was to crack down on anti-Vietnam War protesters who desecrated the flag. The legislation was passed in the state house with ninety votes in favor and no opposition. Applegate proposed legislation in 1979, which would deport any alien "who in any way desecrates or defiles the American flag".

Applegate proposed legislation to expand the definition of what abuse towards the United States flag is in response to an art piece by Dread Scott entitled What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag in which the flag was on the floor. He supported the passage of a Flag Desecration Amendment.

Applegate stated that "I am mad as hell" and that "What in God's name is going on? This is an outrage. What will they allow next? Allow fornication in Times Square at high noon?" after the Supreme Court ruled five to four that flag desecration was protected by the First Amendment in Texas v. Johnson. He also stated that the Supreme Court had humiliated the American flag with its decision.

### Ratings

Ralph Nader's Congress Watch gave Applegate a score of 40% on consumer protection, government reform, taxation, energy, and waste-subsidy in 1978. The Consumer Federation of America gave him a score of 79% in 1982, and 67% in 1984. Congressional Quarterly reported that by 1980, he had voted in favor of legislation supported by Carter thirty percent of the time and that by 1984, he had voted with Reagan twenty-seven percent of the time. In 1991, he voted with the Democrats 68%, tied with Charlie Luken, meaning that he and Luken voted the most in favor of Bush Sr. out of the Democratic house delegation from Ohio. He voted in favor of legislation supported by President Bill Clinton 66% of the time in 1993.

Applegate was given a score of 30% by the Americans for Democratic Action in his first year in office in 1977, while the American Conservative Union gave him a score of 35.14%. He received his highest score from the American Conservative Union in 1979, when they gave him 64.85% while his lowest score from the organization was 12.5% in 1992. He received his lowest score from the Americans for Democratic Action in 1991, when he was given 5%, and his highest score from the organization was 80% in 1993. He was given a rating of 40% by the American Conservative Union, with a lifetime score of 34.20%, and 50% from the Americans for Democratic Action when he left office in 1994.

Conservatives Against Liberal Legislation gave Applegate a score of 55% in 1980. He was one of the sixty-six member of the house targeted by the National Committee for an Effective Congress for the 1982 election. Congressional Quarterly stated that he voted with the conservative coalition 72% of the time by 1982. In 1982, the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, led by Paul Weyrich, gave him a score of 58%

### Voting and elections

Applegate and Representative Anthony Calabrese Jr. introduced legislation which would have placed a ballot proposition to decrease the voting age to nineteen onto the 1966 ballot. However, the legislation failed after the Ohio House of Representatives voted seventy-one to sixty-two in favor which was twelve votes short of a three-fifths majority. He proposed legislation in 1970 and 1971, which would lower the voting age to eighteen while the minimum age for holding office would be twenty-one.

In 1969, Applegate and Senator William B. Nye co-sponsored legislation by Senator Oliver Ocasek to change the Constitution of Ohio to allow people aged nineteen to vote, but the legislation stated that nobody under the age of twenty-one could be elected or appointed to office. The Ohio Senate voted thirty to three in favor of the legislation. However, the referendum failed with 1,274,334 people voting against while 1,226,592 voted in favor. He stated that it was "paradoxical that 60 percent of the young men who are Vietnam battle casualties do not have the right to vote – a right they are fighting to defend".

Applegate supported and introduced legislation to have all presidential primaries held at the same time on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May. He opposed the special election held to fill the Ohio's 17th congressional district following John M. Ashbrook's death stating that it was "a waste of the taxpayers' money" due to its \$175,000 cost and that its sole purpose was "to get someone in who will do nothing, but vote the way the White House wants." He also criticized the special election as the 17th congressional district wouldn't exist after 1982.

## Electoral history

American politician (1928–2021)

Candidates in the 1988 United States presidential election

Democratic Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives

Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio


Cadet scandal

The cadet scandal (Spanish: escándalo de los cadetes), also known as the Ballvé Case (Spanish: Caso Ballvé), was a sex and political scandal that broke out in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 1942, regarding the involvement of young cadets from the Colegio Militar de la Nación in alleged sex parties held by gay men of the upper classes. The main defendant was amateur photographer Jorge Horacio Ballvé Piñero, who held small gatherings in his Recoleta apartment and took erotic pictures of the attendees, which became the main evidence used against him. In 1942, Ballvé Piñero and his group of friends, including Adolfo José Goodwin, Ernesto Brilla, Romeo Spinetto and Sonia—the only woman—among others, started to pick up cadets off the streets for their private parties, with some even developing romantic relationships.

An internal investigation in the Colegio Militar de la Nación uncovered the incidents, which resulted in the expulsion, discharge and punishment of 29 cadets. Ballvé Piñero served as a scapegoat for the scandal and was sentenced to twelve years in prison for the charge of "corruption of minors", as he had recently reached the age of majority of 22 years and his lover was only 20 years old. The news of the incident made a great impact on the society and yellow press of Buenos Aires, to the extent that lists of prominent alleged homosexuals were disseminated anonymously among the population, and cadets were regularly ridiculed in the streets.

The scandal led to the most violent persecution against gay men in Argentine history up to that point, with a series of police raids and defamations that managed to imprison many homosexuals, led others into exile and resulted in two suicides. Several historians point out that the scandal was used as an excuse for the 1943 coup d'état that put an end to the so-called "Infamous Decade" and had the self-proclaimed objective of "moral sanitation". Under the new regime, the persecution of homosexuals increased, and one of its first policies was the deportation of the Spanish singer Miguel de Molina, an event that was commented on throughout the country. The repression of homosexuality deepened with the rise of Peronism in 1946, although some authors suggest that their relationship was rather ambivalent.

The legacy of the scandal has been compared to that of Oscar Wilde's trial in the United Kingdom, the Dance of the Forty-One in Mexico and the Eulenburg affair in Germany, and is considered a turning point in the country's history of homophobia. Nevertheless, the cadet scandal and its ensuing persecution have been historically ignored by historians, and was not reclaimed by the local LGBT culture as the Mexican LGBT community did with the Dance of the Forty-One. In 2019, playwright Gonzalo Demaría became the first person to have access to the case files—the contents of which had been a great source of speculation for Argentine LGBT historians such as Juan José Sebreli, Jorge Salessi and Osvaldo Bazán—and published his research in the first book focused on the scandal the following year.

## Background

### Political and military context

The cadet scandal occurred during a complex transitional period of Argentine history, between the end of the so-called "Infamous Decade" and the rise of Peronism, in the context of the Second World War. In 1930, the first coup d'état in Argentine 20th century history established the military regime of nationalist General José Félix Uriburu, which ended the democratic rule of President Hipólito Yrigoyen.

Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the so-called "agro-export" economic model of Argentina was strongly impacted, since core countries reduced their purchases of raw materials. Uriburu was a conservative who disbelieved in liberal democracy and the party system, representing an authoritarian elitism that sought to replace democracy with a corporatist regime similar to Italian fascism. Under Uriburu's coup, the cadets from the Colegio Militar de la Nación reached the peak of their prestige, as they marched with Uriburu that day; in fact, the event is sometimes referred to as the Golpe de los Cadetes (English: "Cadet Coup"). The recognition of the cadets was given in the construction of a larger and more opulent headquarters in the neighboring town of El Palomar, in Buenos Aires Province.

Uriburu called for presidential elections in 1931, in which officer Agustín Pedro Justo was declared the winner through electoral fraud. Justo was part of the Concordancia (Spanish for "concordance"), a political alliance that included his own National Democratic Party, the Anti-Personalist Radical Civic Union (an anti-Yrigoyen offshoot of the Radical Civic Union) and the Independent Socialist Party. The Concordancia ruled the country until 1943, avoiding the coming to power of the Radical Civic Union through continuous electoral fraud. The Infamous Decade saw the development of a policy of import substitution industrialization, which caused a new wave of immigrants from the interior of the country to Buenos Aires in search of work opportunities. Justo was succeeded as President of Argentina by Roberto María Ortiz in 1938, who died four years later, resulting in the assumption of Ramón Castillo on June 27, 1942.

The first documentary evidence regarding accusations of homosexuality in the Argentine Army date back to 1880, when two sixteen-year-old cadets, Felipe Goulou and César Carri, abused several peers. Homosexuality became a main interest for the Argentine Army in 1905, when more than a hundred homosexuals belonging to the German Army were discovered, during the time in which German officers were advisers at the Escuela Superior de Guerra and Argentine soldiers studied in Germany. The following year, there was a homosexuality scandal in the Argentine Army itself, when Captain Arturo Macedo was killed by a gunshot perpetrated by Major Juan Comas, who later tried to commit suicide in an episode regarded at the time as a "crime of passion" that was little concealed by the press. While Uriburu was the de facto president of the country, he "turned a blind eye" to another scandal that this time involved his family, when the Prince George, Duke of Kent, spent a night with his cousin, José Evaristo Uriburu Roca, during an official visit to Buenos Aires alongside his brother, future king Edward VIII.

### Gay culture in Buenos Aires

At the turn of the 20th century, Buenos Aires was the site of a Great European immigration wave, becoming a great cosmopolitan city and changing the customs of both the working and upper classes. There was also internal immigration of peasants to the margins of the city, where workers and the underclass coexisted. The criminals of these areas developed their own language, lunfardo, a name which also came to describe its speakers. During this time, the lower-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires became the place of origin of tango music and dance, which was initially danced between men. The emergence of tango was accompanied by a new male youth subculture, known as compadritos (lit. 'little buddies'), who were criticized as "effeminate" and "amoral" for dancing with other men and for their meticulousness with personal grooming and fashion.

In the early 20th century, the main area for gay cruising in Buenos Aires (locally known as yire or yiro) were the gardens of Paseo de Julio street, a wooded area that separated the now demolished Recova building from what is now Alem avenue and the Río de la Plata. This southern neighborhood, known as el Bajo, became a partying place for bohemians, sailors, delinquents and prostitutes. The yire area ran from the Casa Rosada—where the monument Las Nereidas by Lola Mora was inaugurated in 1903—to Temple street, where the Central Station of railways was located. Within el Bajo, the main meeting point for gay men was the white marble statue of Giuseppe Mazzini in the square that, at that time, bore his name. Medical and police documents of the time speak of the presence of homosexuals in the brothels of el Bajo, coexisting peacefully with all kinds of lunfardos. Another popular gay cruising spot in the early 20th century was the Avenida de Mayo avenue—inaugurated in 1894—which was very close to the main yire area of Paseo 9 de Julio's gardens. The yire was organized under the dynamic of categories loca (or marica) and chongo. In the argot developed by Argentine gay male culture—the so-called "language of the locas" (Spanish: "habla de las locas")—the still popular word chongo was used to denote masculine, straight passing men that played the active role. In opposition, loca was the term with which openly effeminate homosexuals called each other.

While Buenos Aires was turning into a "melting pot" of immigrants during the late 19th century, the governing elite known as the Generation of '80 sought to modernize the country, taking France as a model. Seeking to control the huge influx of lower-class European immigrants, they implemented a wide-scale state apparatus based on the social hygiene movement, led by doctors José María Ramos Mejía, Francisco de Veyga and José Ingenieros. These hygienists typified the new classes of criminals emerging in Buenos Aires, and were particularly interested in homosexuality. In 1908, criminalist Eusebio Gómez wrote: "The group of homosexuals in Buenos Aires is numerous. They have come to form their own branch of prostitution, because the exercise of their traffic obeys, in an immense majority, not only the desire to satisfy the impositions of their nature, but, very especially, to obtain a profit." The journal Archivos de Psiquiatría, Criminología y Ciencias Afines (English: "Archives of Psychiatry, Criminology and Related Sciences")—edited by de Veyga and Ingenieros—contains the best historical sources on Argentine homosexual life of the beginning of the century. At that time, a group of crossdressing burglars became known, and their biographies and medical profiles written by hygienists constitute one of the first records of gay life in Buenos Aires. The only individuals at the disposal of de Veyga and Ingenieros were prisoners of lunfardo origin (i.e. the underclass), thus creating a cliché that linked homosexuality to criminal life and parodic imitations of women. Although most historical sources focus on homosexuality in the lower classes, the phenomenon was also known to exist in the upper classes, so hygienists proposed the theory that in the former it was congenital, while on the latter it was acquired, mainly by the "perverse" influence of the lower classes. The so-called "aristocrat homosexuality" remained hidden and discreet, being part of a broader decadent-inspired dandy subculture. Between the Belle Époque and the 1940s, Argentine upper-class gay men frequented closed circles of homosexuals in European high society, while at the same time Buenos Aires became a place of refuge for many prominent homosexuals such as Jean-Michel Frank, Federico García Lorca, Witold Gombrowicz and Virgilio Piñera.

The middle- and upper-class gay men of Buenos Aires lived with relative ease until 1943. The two most popular areas for yire at that time were the surroundings of Plaza Italia in Palermo and el Bajo, the area of the city that bordered the Río de la Plata, which stretched from Retiro to behind the Casa Rosada, and many English sailors spent their time at the bar Mission to Seamen on Paseo Colón street, where at night they mingled with the locas. By 1941, the lively homosexual nightlife of Buenos Aires included train stations, the port and cabarets frequented by drag queens (known as transformistas) and young male prostitutes. The police only dealt with underclass homosexuals and there even existed some procureurs, older gay men who organized dates in clandestine brothels with poor young men. Up until the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the men of Buenos Aires were homosocial and the city's nightlife was male-exclusive, which gave it the "suspicious air of a city of single men", making it easier for homosexuals to go unnoticed. In the 1930s, the repression of "deviant sexualities" was increased, although homosexuality as such was not criminally prosecuted. Following the 1930 coup d'état, the new authorities started a series of "moralizing" reforms due to their proximity with the Catholic Church, which put an end to the buoyant nightlife of Buenos Aires. In 1932, the first police edict alluding to homosexuality appeared, punishing "finding a subject known to be a pervert in the company of a minor." In this trend, brothels were closed in 1936—as part of the so-called Social Prophylaxis Law (Spanish: Ley de Profilaxis Social)— and censorship began to be implemented with respect to sexual issues in journalism, radio, cinema, theater and literature. This anti-homosexual trend was crowned with the cadet scandal in 1942, which ended the relatively peaceful lives of the middle- and upper-class homosexuals of Buenos Aires.

## Ballvé Piñero's parties

Jorge Horacio Ballvé Piñero was born on July 14, 1920, in Buenos Aires, to aristocrat parents Horacio Ballvé Pallejá—a sea captain—and Leonor Piñero Stegmann—who was 18 years his junior. During the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas—who ruled Buenos Aires in the 1830s and 1840s—his mother's German great-grandfather, Klaus Stegmann, amassed a great fortune, with an estate that had thousands of fertile hectares. After the death of her husband in 1925, Piñero Stegmann took five-year-old Jorge and her other two children—Horacio and Héctor—and moved to Paris, France, where they resided throughout his childhood. The only sources about Ballvé Piñero's childhood are an autobiographical account that was included at the closing of his court case and a medical examination carried out by Doctor Oscar Blanchard, who examined him in November 1942, shortly after his incarceration. He returned with his family to Argentina in 1931 and moved to a house in the Recoleta neighborhood. When he was eighteen years old, Ballvé Piñero began to frequent the homosexual scene in the lower-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, as he recalled to Doctor Blanchard: "I began to know people and places and to contract vices and customs and all my longings for joys, pleasures and knowledge overflowed in them." He also started experimenting with drugs, including Aktedol (a phosphate stimulant), cocaine and opium. Alarmed by his abuse of the latter, Ballvé Piñero's mother decided to admit him at the Loudet sanatorium in November 1938. Although the original reason was drug addiction, during his hospitalization he underwent medical procedures to try to "cure" his homosexuality, which included applying injectable testosterone to his testicles. In December 1938, he was transferred to the National Colony of the Alienated in Open Door—named for the "open door" system that opposed the prison model of asylums—where he stayed for six months. Ballvé Piñero left the facility in 1939 but was quickly admitted by his mother to the prestigious Chacot sanatorium in Martínez, where he remained another six months treating his homosexuality. In March 1940, Ballvé Piñero abruptly left the Chacot sanatorium after being subjected to insulin shock therapy, a novel treatment for schizophrenia.

In early 1941, the 21-year-old Ballvé Piñero went to live with his maternal grandparents on Santa Fe Avenue, where he began, in his own words, "a [new life] of pleasure and freedom in which my sole concern would be for my personal pleasure and my sole purpose to procure it." His social relations changed substantially, leaving his schoolmates behind to hang out with locas, chongos and prostitutes. As part of this new life, Ballvé Piñero started renting a bachelor pad in the city center, and later, following the death of his grandfather, moved altogether to an apartment on 1381 Junín street, in Recoleta. It was there where his amateur photography project took shape, which became one of his biggest hobbies. Ballvé Piñero's photographs were a collection of black-and-white erotic portraits of male models—many of them naked—with detailed handwritten inscriptions of the location and approximate date and details of the model, their job and indications of where they had met. To medical experts from 1941, Ballvé Piñero explained his modus operandi for picking up young men consisted of driving at low speed along Corrientes avenue, between Alem and Esmeralda streets, at two or three in the morning until he found someone that drew his attention. Many chongos frequented the avenue in search of other men, out of need for money or simply for sex.

The established discourse maintains that crowded orgies and sex parties were held in Ballvé Piñero's department, which has been dismissed by more recent research as an "urban legend", describing them instead as more or less improvised meetings with dances between several young men, drinks and political discussions. Nevertheless, this type of parties did take place according to various testimonies, including one cross dressing ball—only attended by locas—and another held around 1937 by the so-called "Barón Hell"—German spy Georg Helmut Lenk—in aristocrat Pepo Dose's palace on Avenida Alvear. Celebrations were also held in the houses in the south of Buenos Aires of architect Daniel Duggan and an unidentified man known as Horacio Hercout Zamborain. In Hercout Zamborain's parties, group photographs were purportedly taken by a portraitist known as Prado from photographic studio Estudio Fotográfico F. de Renoir, which was raided after the scandal broke out in September 1942. The tradition of nude photography had arrived to Buenos Aires from the huge market for erotic or openly pornographic postcards that were distributed from France at the beginning of the 20th century. Both the portraitists and their models were generally anonymous, although the investigation sparked by the cadet scandal led to other photographers dedicated to the traffic of postcards for the homosexual public, including the so-called Prado, Ítalo Sala Salas (under the pseudonym "Gil") and Gustavo Torlich. Along with Ballvé Piñero, these men are now regarded as pioneers of homoerotic photography in Argentina.

Ballvé Piñero's close group of friends included Adolfo José Goodwin, Ernesto Brilla, Romeo Spinetto and young model Sonia (pseudonym of Blanca Nieve Abratte), the only woman involved. Other mutual friends of the bourgeois circle to which he belonged included Pepe Emery, Raúl Herrán Molina and renowned architect Daniel Duggan. Ballvé Piñero, Goodwin and Spinetto had a fetish for uniforms and started dating cadets through Brilla, with whom they shared a taste for military men. By mid-1942, Mario Indalecio Villafañe and Javier Calvo Reyes joined the group of friends. Between June and July, the young men began to dedicate themselves almost exclusively to seducing cadets, traveling through Santa Fe avenue and using young Sonia to capture their interest in the parties. Ballvé Piñero met his first cadet, Pedro, on the night of June 15, 1942—who had been picked up by Brilla on Corrientes avenue earlier that afternoon—and they soon developed a romantic relationship. Pedro introduced the group of friends to fellow cadets Juan Carlos and Jorge, and they all began to go out together. For his part, Goodwin also began a courtship with cadet Juan Carlos. According to artist Fernando Noy—who got his version from Paco Jamandreu and one of the cadets involved—ten or twelve well-off ladies used to take part in the reunions as "camouflage", interspersed with their designers such as Jamandreu himself, and the cadets invited by Abratte. Once these women left at midnight, the locas arrived to the party in luxury cars—many of them while cross-dressing—to have encounters with the chongos. The guests to the parties were recruited directly or through some procureurs such as Jorge Olchansky (under the pseudonym Celeste Imperio), and also by the young Sonia. Besides Junín street, many of the parties took place at Rómulo Naón's apartment on Beruti street, another upper-class young man.

## Investigation and arrest

On June 19, 1942, Pedro's roommate Angelito grew suspicious and decided to spy on Brilla, meeting him and then secretly following him to watch as he seduced other cadets. Then he decided to speak with a superior, corporal Díez, who asked him to collaborate in a discreet investigation. While his partner was away, Angelito searched his wardrobe, finding boxes of chocolates and candies, a gold ring and a money deposit, in packages that had Ballvé Piñero's name written on them. In parallel, after attending a party in Junín street on July 10, two indignant cadets spoke to their superior, sergeant Inchauspe, who decided to attend Ballvé Piñero's upcoming birthday party with them on the 19th to investigate the matter. At the reunion, Inchauspe ended up beating up Spinetto, as he tried to touch his penis in the bathroom, and later brought the facts to the attention of the superiors of the Colegio Militar de la Nación. Earlier versions—such as a contemporary account by La Nación—attributed the outbreak of the scandal to an alleged extortion of some cadets with Ballvé Piñero's photographs, something that was recently confirmed to be false by not appearing in the case files, besides that he was a rich man that willingly gifted money and gifts to the cadets.

On August 21, first lieutenant Noms wrote a report with the data collected by Inchauspe and, that same day, the Federal Police carried out a raid on Ballvé Piñero's department, where they confiscated 121 photos involving cadets, which had the direct consequence of the expulsion, discharge and punishment of those involved.

On September 2, colonel Daul signed an order in which nine cadets were expelled, six were discharged, and fourteen others were punished with varying amounts of days of arrest. A second raid on Ballvé Piñero's department took place on September 3; by then, a complaint before the civil justice had just been filed by three upper-class men— Fernando Cullen, Andrés Bacigalupo Rosende and Franklin Dellepiano Rawson—who formalized a lawsuit for corruption of minors, taken by prosecutor Luciano Landaburu and investigating judge Narciso Ocampo Alvear.

Ballvé Piñero was arrested on September 6. He served as a scapegoat, and was presented as the "head of the gang", with any new case of homosexuality in the armed forces being added to his file. The role of Ballvé Piñero in the cadet scandal was such that it was known as the "Ballvé Case" (Spanish: "Caso Ballvé"), both by the press and by the prosecutors. Tabloid Ahora, for instance, dedicated an extensive article in which all the blame fell on him.

## Impact

### Society and politics

The scandal broke out in September 1942 and made a great impact on Argentine society, causing a moral panic. By September 11, the rumor had begun to spread around the general public, which speculated the identities of the men involved. Cadets became the object of regular homophobic ridicule by civilians, so they began to go out dressed without their uniform. As a result, the Ministry of War (Spanish: Ministerio de Guerra) issued a resolution that forced them to publicly wear the uniform despite any incident, and to "not tolerate any joke that would injure military honor." On the night of September 26, a large street fighting occurred in the city center between cadets and civilians and, the following week, they came out in small groups ready to attack anyone who insulted them, badly injuring a young man. On October 2, a revue play titled ¡Para Río me voy! premiered at the Maipo theatre, which included a number parodying the scandal. Both in its premiere and in the following function, there were physical fights between cadets and civilians, an altercation that was not disclosed by the press.

Argentine society interpreted the cadet scandal as evidence of an increase in homosexuality, supposedly caused by the closure of brothels, which did not allow men to satisfy their "sexual instincts". In addition, it was believed that the coexistence and confinement of people of the same sex in closed places favored the expansion of homoerotic practices. Researchers Karina Inés Ramacciotti and Adriana María Valobra note that the scandal "had a symbolic impact, accentuating a past homophobia and questioning the effectiveness of [the Social Prophylaxis Law]." Influenced by this, de facto president Edelmiro Julián Farrell enabled the operation of brothels in the vicinity of military barracks in 1944.

News of the scandal broke out in the press on October 30 and 31, 1942, and divided it among those who did not dare to publish more than a short paragraph full of euphemisms and, on the other hand, sensationalist, yellow journalism illustrated with fictitious photos. Both the police and the press made reference to a "secret sect" of homosexuals that sought to corrupt the youth and especially the members of one of the "most prestigious institutions" of the country. The newspaper La Prensa—which until then had barely allowed the mention of homosexuality in its pages—was specially entertained by the case and set the precedent for how the Argentine press would present homosexuality for the rest of the 20th century, solely through scandal. Tabloid Ahora—controlled by nationalist militaries—took advantage of the case to attack not only the Conservative Party, but democracy itself.

Several writers consider that the cadet scandal served as one of the justifications for the military coup d'état that took place nine months later on June 4, 1943, which had the self-proclaimed objective of "moral sanitation" and promoted the idea of a "corrupt oligarchy". Most historians agree that the military secret society United Officers Group (Spanish: Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU) played a decisive role in both the organization of the coup and the military government that emerged from it. Historians Omar Acha and Pablo Ben claim that: "the [cadet] scandal was soon neutralized and had no role in legitimizing the coup d'état of June 1943." Acha and Ben point out that even though the criticism of the "corruption" of politicians and the defense of morality are mentioned in GOU's documents, the "sexual invert" accusation was only used following the coup, within the internal struggles of the military sectors, in which the group sought to displace an official from the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction (Spanish: Ministerio de Justicia e Instrucción Pública). The GOU wanted to evict politicians who had built an "immoral" state and had "prostituted" the Armed Forces. Soon, this image of an indecent state associated with a corrupt political class became established under the concept of "Infamous Decade", with which the previous government began to be described as.

### Ensuing gay persecution

The outbreak of the scandal led to the most violent raid against homosexuals in Argentine history up to that point, an episode widely ignored by historians. The great raid managed to arrest men of great social prestige, while three of the participants—Naón, Ostwald and Subercaseaux—managed to go into exile in Montevideo, Uruguay until the penalty was outlawed. In the two weeks that followed Ballvé Piñero's arrest, the rest of the "gang" were captured one by one. Goodwin was apprehended the same day as his friend, while Spinetto and Naón were arrested the following day on September 7, 1942. On September 9, Brilla, Villafañe and Calvo testified at the Palace of Justice and were arrested immediately after. Judge Ocampo ordered the search for the people who appeared in Ballvé Piñero's photographs, as well as those mentioned by the other detainees in their testimonies. In particular, they were looking for men who played the passive sexual role—known as "inverts"—while the active ones—not condemned by society for exercising penetration—were only questioned to reach more of them. The charge of corruption of minors has been described as a "subterfuge to hide the persecution of gay men", as main defendant Ballvé Piñero did not reach the age of majority (which, at the time, was 22 years old) until July and in some cases the alleged corrupted were not only of legal age but also older than the alleged corrupters. The judges pressured those arrested to delate and divulge the names of other homosexuals in order to find them. During the testimonies, several high-ranking figures in business, arts, the armed forces and the executive and judicial systems were mentioned, including Hernán Pacheco Bosch, Alejandro Lamarca Martínez de Hoz and Miguel Cullen Crisol, with the latter two only being cited to give a testimonial statement. Many of the men mentioned in the prosecution ended up with preventive detention, including writer Carlos Zubizarreta, Miguel Ángel Bres Miranda, Raúl Padilla and choreographer Rafael García.

A secret session was held in the Senate on September 17, where a special commission was formed to investigate homosexuals, made up of the person who had requested the formation of the commission, Sánchez Lago, plus González Iramaín and future candidate for the presidency in 1946, Radical Civic Union's José Tamborini. On November 6, 1942, the prosecutor Landaburu raised his request for preventive detention to Ballvé Piñero, Goodwin, Spinetto, Villafañe, Calvo Reyes, Brilla, Sonia, Olchansky Horacio Alberto Arata, Andrés Augusto Lucantis and Carlos Podestá Méndez for the charges of "corruption of minors and illicit association"; as well as to Naón, Duggan, Eduardo Crempien, Barón Hell, Miguel ÁngelBres Miranda, Rafael Ponferrada, Rafael Edmundo García, Horacio Alberto Cabrera, Raúl Padilla, Fernando Emery, Juan Bautista Mihura, Alberto Ricardo Frías, Ítalo Sala Salas, Walter Cabeza Serrano and Horacio González for "corruption of minors". He also requested the capture of some fugitives, such as Guillermo Simón Ostwald or Raúl Herrán Molina, as well as new rounds of statements and the location of various witnesses. Judge Ocampo decided three days later, ratifying the prosecutor's requests and aggravating Naón's situation by including him in the first group. The judge's resolution does not refer at any time to the crimes involved, but simply to homosexuality, and has been described as "worthy of appearing in histories and studies on gender issues in the country and even in the world." Among the only defense pleas to openly defend homosexuality was that of Spinetto's attorney—Horacio Monje—who cited Marcel Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah and André Gide's Corydon, claiming that homosexuals suffer from an innate and therefore not punishable disease. In 1944, Brilla's lawyer Eduardo Howard made similar statements. At the end of March 1943, the case passed from the hands of investigating judge Ocampo to those of sentencing judge Aquileo González Oliver.

On March 3, 1944, the new prosecutor of the case Roberto Ferández Speroni requested the following penalties: two years of prison for Padilla and Emery; two years and six months for Lenk; three years for Sonia, Arata, Calvo, Naón, Villafañe, Bres Miranda, Crempien, Mihura, Duggan and García; three years and six months for Podestá Méndez; four years for Lucantis and Sala Salas; five for Olchansky; eight for Goodwin; twelve for Brilla and eighteen for Ballvé Piñero, whom he considered the "central axis of this true organization." For his role as host of parties, Duggan was one of the main targets of the case. Footballer Jose Manuel "Charro" Moreno was one of the most famous figures questioned by the law, due to his friendship with the architect, who possessed nude photos of him. Moreno stated that the reason for those photos was to exalt his athletic build, and that he had no knowledge of Duggan's homosexuality. It has not been proven that Duggan's relationship with Moreno was sexual in nature. After serving his sentence, Duggan committed suicide. In 1945, Naón escaped from his arrest during a visit to the Palace of Justice, and was not captured again. On June 26, 1947, judge Tolosa Castro dictated his sentence on the Ballvé Case, ordering the following punishments: twelve years in prison for Ballvé Piñero; nine for Brilla; four years and nine moths for Sonia, Arata, Calvo and Villafañe; five years for Goodwin and Podestá Méndez; four years and ten months for Lucantis; six years for Olchansky and Spinetto; and four years and eight months for Bres Miranda. The final sentence was drawn up by Speroni on May 28, 1948, ratifying the sentences handed down by Tolosa Castro and considering those of Sonia, Goodwin and Bres Miranda to be completed.

The persecution of homosexuals unleashed in mid-September 1942 intensified in the following years. As soon as the scandal broke out, anonymous prints began to circulate where prominent politicians, officers of the Armed Forces, high prelates, ladies of the high society and professionals were listed as participants in the orgies. In the face of massive rumors, the press published long lists of highly regarded people that allegedly were homosexuals. Roberto Noble—future founder of newspaper Clarín—released a public statement denying his participation in orgies after being mentioned in these lists. Noble was involved in the case due to having an affair with Sonia; the fact that he was not accused of corruption of minors—despite having slept with the 19-year-old—points to the real motive of a homosexual persecution. In 1947, Clarín deleted all reference to Noble when it reported on the Ballvé Case ruling. Adolfo De Bruyn—a 54-year-old aristocrat that was a member of various business and philanthropic societies—committed suicide on December 14 out of public shame. He had not been investigated by the police, but his name was spread by newspaper Crónica in October.

The repression of homosexuality increased with the new military regime installed on June 4, 1943, as part of the censorship and control that it exercised over radio broadcasting, periodicals, theater, trade unions and political activity. Although during the rest of 1942 homosexual activities were more closely watched than usual as a result of the scandal, it was the new regime who carried out the first anti-homosexual operation of great repercussion: the deportation of Spanish singer and actor Miguel de Molina, who had settled in Buenos Aires in 1942. During the mid-1930s, de Molina was the most popular actor in Spain, but had to go into exile due to the coming to power of dictator Francisco Franco, after which he began to be attacked for his political ideas and his sexuality. In the port of Buenos Aires, de Molina was farewelled by renowned actresses Iris Marga, Gloria Guzmán and Sofía Bozán, although no men attended due to the stigma of homosexuality. The episode was commented on throughout the country and, for the first time, homosexuality was publicly discussed in all social sectors. Writer Osvaldo Bazán noted that: "The punishment for the cadet scandal and the [deportation] of Miguel [de Molina] sought to discipline the locas of Buenos Aires. Fear did the rest." In 1944—during the de facto government of Pedro Pablo Ramírez—an anti-homosexual science book written by doctor J. Gómez Nerea became a bestseller, which described Argentine homosexuality in the following terms:

> It is known that in the literary and artistic environment of Buenos Aires there is a very high percentage of inverts. Actors, poets, renowned politicians [and] magistrates practice the terrible vice, and although society has pointed the finger of stigmatization on them, nothing can be done against them... (...) ... the percentage of sexual inversion among us reaches extremely high figures, perhaps astronomical ones. Not in vain it is heard in foreign countries, especially in neighboring countries, that Buenos Aires disputes the great capitals of the world, Berlin, for example, the first place in terms of the number of homosexuals. (...) ... if we do not enumerate and nominate them, it is simply to avoid the prosecution of a law more aimed at protecting inverts than at repressing or containing their anomaly. In fact, I consider that one of the most appropriate ways to put a shortcut to this evil would be the publication of the names of homosexuals, since this way the youth could be as cautious as they are with the leper and avoid the spread of the vice.

One of the first measures taken by the military dictatorship in 1944 was an Internal Regulation of the Armed Forces, the first military public document to explicitly mention homosexuality as a cause for imprisonment and expulsion. In 1952—under the democratic government of Juan Perón—a military law was approved by the Congress where not only the "act" was condemned, but rather simply "being" homosexual was now a cause for discharge. Between 1946 and 1949, the Peronist government closed the cabarets in el Bajo, including the few existing gay bars. In Buenos Aires Province, governor Domingo Mercante banned voting for homosexual political candidates in 1946. The nodal point of the persecution of homosexuality was in the Regulation of Contraventional Procedures, which gave the Federal Police the power to sanction its own laws on security, including homosexuality, which did not exist as a crime in the Penal Code. After collecting testimonies from Argentine travestis over the age of seventy, anthropologist Josefina Fernández found in 2004 that most of them regarded the first period of Perón's government as "the one that most clearly began the persecution of gay men and travestis, whether or not they practiced street prostitution." In those years, travestis (identified at that time as mariconas) began to be regularly imprisoned at the Devoto prison, as "sex offenders." According to Omar Acha and Pablo Ben, the definition of gay men as a singular group was established during Perón's first government, even though the concept of homosexuality that characterized the time was different from the one that prevails today. Adrián Melo characterized Peronism's relationship with homosexuality as "ambiguous", pointing out that it meant a certain relaxation in customs. According to writer Pablo Gasparini: "Peronism seems to have, however, something of a party. The eroticism that arises from this meeting of classes is powerful. The relationship of the middle-class marica with the chongo from the villa not only filled lamentations but also saunas. Personal testimonies show the existence of gay saunas in Buenos Aires in the 1950s, when there were none in New York." The close relationship between first lady Eva Perón—an iconic figure for several gay authors—and her designer Paco Jamandreu is well known, and the latter's memoirs are a testimony of the concealed gay life of the era.

## Legacy

Ballvé Piñero's photographs have been reappraised for their artistic merit and as pioneers of homoerotic portraiture. Writing for Soy in 2009, Alejandro Modarelli noted that the scandal opened "ajar the door to a quartered homoeroticism that had not begun to exist then and that did not end that day either." Regarding the persecution that followed the scandal, artist Fernando Noy stated in 2009: "It must have been like a scene from The Damned. What would Visconti not have given to be a witness. With María Luisa Bemberg we began to dream of a film script. But soon after she died, and the idea was frozen."

The legacy of the scandal has been related to that of the trial of Oscar Wilde in the United Kingdom, the Dance of the Forty-One in Mexico and the Eulenburg affair in Germany. After drawing a connection between the cadet scandal and these last two, Adrián Melo wrote in Soy magazine in 2019: "Each country has a founding fact and a landmark that represents a turning point in the history of homophobia, which condenses prejudices and scientific, medical and legal knowledge about homosexuality and legitimizes repression." However, Melo also pointed out in another publication that, while the Dance of the Forty-One has been reclaimed by the Mexican LGBT community, the cadet scandal has been historically silenced in Argentina—except for the pioneering researches of Juan José Sebreli and the more recent ones of Jorge Salessi, among others—probably due to the involvement of members from both the Armed Forces and families of the oligarchy.

Playwright and researcher Gonzalo Demaría wrote the 2017 play Juegos de amor y guerra, which premiered in Buenos Aires and represents the events of the cadet scandal. In 2019, he received access to the case files—including the infamous photographs—which were long believed to be lost and had been widely sought after by gay journalists and social scientists, including Sebreli, Salessi, Osvaldo Bazán and Alejandro Modarelli. Although the photos of the cadets were destroyed, one of the files attached to the case preserves more than 200 pictures of civilians, most of them from the working class. However, the judge who allowed Demaría to access the files did so on the condition that he did not reproduce the famous photos, due to the possible living relatives of those involved. Following his research, he published the first book focusing on the scandal in February 2020, titled Cacería. In July, it was announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the rights to the book and intended to make a fiction series inspired by the real event.

## See also

- History of homosexuality
- History of LGBTQ in journalism
- LGBT in Argentina
- LGBT rights in Argentina
- Sexual orientation and gender identity in military service
- Timeline of LGBT history, 20th century

Sex and political scandal in Argentina 1942