The Long Beach ‘social vagrant’ investigations, 1914

From the Archives Long Beach undercover sting targeting gay men results in 31 arrests in 1914, causing a local scandal

By Hailey Branson-Potts

Long Beach po­lice ar­res­ted 31 men, all al­leged mem­bers of two private clubs, on sus­pi­cion of “so­cial vag­rancy” dur­ing stings con­duc­ted by vice spe­cial­ists W.H. War­ren and B.C. Brown. The ar­res­ted men, the art­icle said, had “un­nat­ur­al tend­en­cies [which] caused them to make ad­vances to oth­er men.” Most paid fines of agreed to serve jail time, but one, flor­ist Her­bert N. Lowe, fought the charges. The of­ficers said he told them about the clubs, which they raided, be­fore his own ar­rest.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 14, 1914