1950s: Allegations of a Photo
According to the controversial, sensationalist writer Anthony Summers, John Weitz, a former official in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), at a dinner party hosted by the former head of the CIA's counterintelligence division, James Angelton, had been shown a photo of Hoover and Tolson having sex.

Theoharis strongly contests Summers' research in J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, page 46. See also 1967, Gordon Novel.

1950s: FBI Surveillance of Homosexuals
During the 1950s the FBI engaged in widespread surveillance of the gay world. Not only did it collect from local vice squads the names of men arrested on homosexual morals charges; it also placed a watch on gay bars and infiltrated the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.

D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, p. 124. Research request: full citation?

1950, February 3
Photo, Hoover and Tolson, etc. Caption: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (right) was reported to have told Senators today that Dr. Fuchs has confessed to giving Russia vital information on assembly of the atomic bomb and some data on the supersecret hydrogen weapon. He is shown talking to reporters after a 3-hour session with a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. In the center is Clyde Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI.

Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U928885ACME

1950, March 5: Carmel Offie Investigated
Douglas M. Charles reports: on this date, during the FBI's investigation of Charles Thayer (see 1948, May), officials learned that an acqaintance of Thayer's, Carmel Offie, employed by the Central Inteligenc Agency's covert operations division, could "furnish further deogatory information concerning Thayer."

Offie, the FBI learned, had been arrested in 1943, in Washington, DC, for cruising men in Lafayette Park. J. Edgar Hoover ordered an investigation of Offie, and learned that Offie had not reported his arrest when applying for work with the CIA.

On April 25, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy, on the floor of the Senate, referred to a man employed by the CIA who had been arrested for "hanging around the men's room in Lafayeette Park," and asked why the CIA did not fire him. On the same day, Senator Kenneth Wherry announced that the man McCarthy had referred to had been fired. 

After Offie's dismissal from the CIA he was offered employment by Jay Lovestone, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

On July 10, 1950 FBI officials authorised "discreet" physical surveillance of Offie.

On July 17 FBI agents began their surveillance of Offie and observed him entering Mickey's Grille, which they described as a "hangout for perverts." They also saw him visiting David's Bar, another gay business.

On July 27, 1950, FBI officials authoried an illegal break-in of Offie's Washingotn, DC, home.

In December 1950 FBI agents were investigating Lovestone and Offie for suspected espionage. The Bureau had been informed that Offie "might have obtained considerable funds" from illegal money transactions in Europe." Nothing, apparently, came of this investigation.

In 1951 FBI officials planned to leak "information of a derogatory nature" to an unknown recipient that would enable "the elmination of Offie from his present employment in the AF of L." For unknown reasons, the FBI did not go ahead with this plan.

On December 11, 1951, the FBI leaked information to unknown receipients about Offie's 1943 arrest via the Bureau's Sex Deviate Program.

Late in 1952 an army intelligence officer, Colonel Willis Perry claimed that Offie had, on October 3, 1952, taken possession of a classified document concerning procurement program. In an interview with FBI agents Offie claimed he was given the classified document and denied knowing that it was classified. FBI agents later learned that Offie was entitied to receive classified information concerning the procurement program.

On January 3, 1953, after learning tahat Offie was seeking a Federal job, the FBI disseminated to the Civil Service Commission and another unknown recipient details about Offies 1943 arrest.

On January 4, 1953 Hoover reported to other FBI officials that Offie's offer of a job had been rescinded after a congressional committee revealed to the White House information about his 1943 arrest. Hoover wrote: "It seems to be an inherent part of a pervert;s makeup to be also a pathological liar." 

On Jaunuary 5, 1953, Hoover disseminated derogatory information about Offie and others to Walter Bedell Smith, Undersecretary of State, and Robert Cutler, President Eisenhower's administative assistant. Hoover told Cutler there was "no question about Offie" and mentioned Offie's arrest in 1943.

On Febuary 11, 1953, Hoover distributed a document listing the "pervert allegations" against Office, including his 1943 arrest, his dismissal from the CIA, and his associates. The recipients of Hoover's document were Herbert Brownell Smith, U.S. Attonrey General, Cutler, and Sherman Adams, White House Chief of Staff.

On February 27, 1953, Hoover sent another memo alleged that on October 15, 1949, while being interviewed in his CIA office, Offie had made "improper advances" toward an official.

In March 1953, FBI officials tried to uncover details about Offie's sponsorship of a person through the Displaced Persons Acts. Late in March and early APril Hoover ordered agents to interview a woman about Pffie's "homosexual activities."

On March 16, 1953, Hoover included information Offie had offered agents when he was interviewed about Charles Bohlen, who was being investigated for a position as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. (See: 1953, February 27: Charles Bohlen.) The report also contained derogatory information about Offie, described as single and "not effeminate." Offie had once told an FBI informer, "an admitted homosexual," that "I'd like to sleep with you." The homosexual informer said "Offie is as queer asa a $3 bill" and is "known among the Washington higher homosexuals as 'one of us.'" A second admitted homosexual informer said Offie "has a reputation of being homosexual." A third homosexual informer said "Offie is certainly a homosexual." Offie's 1943 arrest record was detailed.

In May 1953 FBI officials tried to access State Department files on Offie, and a State Department official gave the FBI a summary of those files. The FBI continued its intensive investigation of Offie.

In the winter of 1954 Offie telephoned the FBI for help in responding to burglaries at his home on a farm in rural Virginia. J. Edgar Hoover told agents not to help "this character" because he "is a stinker."

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the FBI's "Sex Deviates" Program (Lexington: KY: University of Kentucky Press, September 18, 2015), pages 98-102, 119-122, 132, 145-147. See also: Wikipedia: Carmel Offie, accessed September 7, 2015 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmel_Offie

1950, April 2: Roy Blick to FBI
On "a confidential basis," the FBI received from Lieutenant Roy Blick, Chief of the Morals Division of the Washington DC Police, a list of persons allegedly employed by the US Government and allegedly arrested on morals charges.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, p. 89.

1950, April 10: FBI to US Government Agencies
A list of 393 alleged federal employees, allegedly arrested in Washington, DC, since 1947, "on charges of sexual irregularities," is forwarded by J. Edgar Hoover to The White House, the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and the various branches of the armed services. Hoover obtained the list from Lieutenant Roy Block, chief of the DC Morals Division. Charles discusses this April 1950 list dissemination as the start of the the FBI's Sex Deviates Program (see 1951, June 20).

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, p. 83. For details about Blick see Charles. See also Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History, pp. 93, 97-99.

1950, April 12
On this date the US Civil Service Commission receives from J. Edgar Hoover lists of alleged federal employees arrested "for alleged sex offenses" or investigated for alleged sex offenses.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, p. 84.

1950, April 14
A first report using FBI fingerprint files, identified 363 alleged federal employees who had been arrested for sex offenses between 1947 and 1950.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, p. 83.

1950, April 17
On this date, and on April 28 and May 4, the US Civil Service Commission receives from J. Edgar Hoover lists of alleged federal employees arrested "for alleged sex offenses" or investigated for alleged sex offenses.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, pp. 84-85. 

1950, May: Wherry Committee Hearings
Hearings in the U.S. Senate, headed by Senator Kenneth Wherry (Nebraska, Republican) on "moral perverts" employed by the U.S. Government. It was based on a Senate subcommittee composed of Wherry and Senator J. Lester Hill (Alabama, Democrat). Wherry issued a report recommending that a larger Senate committee investigate the issue of "moral perverts" and national security.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, pp. 84-85.

1950, July-September: Hoey Committee Hearings
A committee headed by Senator Clyde Hoey (North Carolina, Democrat) investigates "moral perverts" employed by the US Government. That investigation is led by former FBI agent Francis "Frip" Flanagan. In closed sessions testimony is taken from Assistant to the Director of the FBI D. Milton Ladd.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, pp. 86-87, 91-93.

CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter, testifying to the Hoey Committee, is said to have delivered fabricated testimony on the invidious role of the homosexual spy in history.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones The FBI: A History (2007), page 159. Research request: full citation; copy of fabricated testimony?

1950, July 18
Former FBI agent Francis "Frip" Flanagan, Chief Counsel of the US Senate Hoey Committee, contacts FBI Assistant to the Director D. Milton Ladd, to discuss the handling of fingerprints and criminal records of "perverts in the Government." On July 20 Flanagan meets with Ladd and FBI assistant director Stanley J. Tracy

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, pp. 86-87, 88-89.

1950, December 15
Senator Clyde Hoey issued a report on his Senate committee's investigation of "moral perverts" employed by the US Government. The report was written by former FBI agent Francis Flanagan.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War on Gays, pp. 86-87. See also: "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government," 81 Congress, 2d Session, Government Printing Office, 1950; accessed September 20, 2015 from: https://www.mwe.com/info/mattachineamicus/document14.pdf

1951: D.C. Beauty Parlor Operator Calls Hoover "Queer"
Athan Theoharis writes that, in 1951, a Washington D.C. beauty parlor operator was interviewed twice by two senior FBI officials at her place of business because someone had reported to the FBI that she had told a customer that J. Edgar Hoover was "queer".

Interviewed by the FBI officials, she denied having made such remarks about Hoover, and was "advised [as an FBI file reports] in no undertain terms that such statements . . . would not be coountenanced."

Reporting back to Hoover on this interview, FBI Assistant Director F.C. Holloman contended that his woman "fully realizes the seriousness of her accusations, and it is not believed that she will ever be guilty of such statements."

Athan Theoharis, J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1995), pages 35, 36. The relevant FBI memos relating to this incident are reprinted in Athan Theoharis, From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover.

1951, February: Hoover and Psychiatrist?
Gossip columnist Jack Anderson writes that J. Edgar Hoover had consulted a psychiatrist, Dr. Ruffin. This was Dr. Marshal D. Ruffin. Hoover thought of suing Anderson.

Theoharis, J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime, page 43.

1951, May: Joseph Bryan II and Rumors of Hoover's Homosexuality
This month Joseph Bryan II, then an agent with the CIA's psychological warfare division, for some reason received CIA and FBI authorization to review the FBI's Obscene File.

On the eve of the 1952 presidential election, Bryan hosted a dinner party in his home at which he was reported to have remarked to his guests about Hoover's perverse interest in pornography.

Bryan then reportedly stated that Hoover "had a crush on a friend of theirs and had made advances to him several times, when it was found out that no progress could be made [Hoover] had turned him in.'"

Hoover heard of Bryan's alleged allegations and asked for a briefing on him, others at the party, the friend Bryan had mentioned, and the whole matter. The FBI investigated but could establish no hard facts about what had been said, and the investigation was closed.

In 1955, Hoover heard that Bryan had repeated allegations about Hoover's homosexuality to an individual who had reported it to the vice chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, William Jenner.

FBI Assistant Director Louis Nicholas asked Hoover's approval to go with FBI supervisor Cartha DeLoach to interview Bryan, and they did so. Bryan denied any malicious intent and wrongdoing, and wrote to Hoover to apologize.

The FBI then briefed the lawyer for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee about Bryan, with the understanding that the lawyer would brief Senator Jenner. The FBI also informed the CIA about this 1955 incident.

Theoharis, J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime, pages 49-52.

1951, June 20: Sex Deviates Program
On June 20, 1951, reports Douglas M. Charles, J. Edgar Hoover, greatly expanded the Sex Deviates Program begun in April 1950 (see). He issued a memo establishing a "uniform policy for the handling of the increasing number of reports and allegations concerning present and past employees of the United State Government who assertedly [sic] are sex deviates." 

The new program, says Charles, "vastly expanded bureau efforts to disseminate information about gays in govenrment to ensure their separation from federal employment." It was expanded further to include people in non-government jobs.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War, pages 102-103.

Athan Theoharis says that FBI efforts extended to disseminating information about homosexuals. "In 1951 he [Hoover] had unilaterally instituted a Sex Deviates program to purge alleged homosexuals from any position in the federal government, from the lowliest clerk to the more powerful position of White house aide." 

Athan G. Theoharis, The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide (1999), page 30. Accessed April 12, 2012 from https://books.google.com/books? Athan Theoharis, J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1995), page 23. 

Claire Bond Potter says: "In 1951, at the request of several federal agencies, Hoover devised the Sex Deviates program, which sought to identify gays and lesbians working in government. This function was expanded in 1953 after a presidential order by Dwight Eisenhower made federal employment of homosexuals illegal". See: Potter "Queer" (2006), page 368.

Research request: Was the Sex Deviates program initiated by "several federal agencies" or by Hoover "unilaterally", as Theoharis says? 

1952: Adlai Stevenson: "One of 'the Two Best Known Homosexuals in the State'"
According to David Oshinsky: "In 1952, . . . a memo [in the FBI's files] noted that Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic Presidential nominee, was one of "the two best known homosexuals in the state." It hardly mattered to Hoover that the informant was a college basketball player under indictment for fixing a game or that his evidence was based only on rumor. What did matter was that Stevenson had spoken out against loyalty oaths, criticized Joe McCarthy, and vetoed a bill that would outlaw the Communist Party in Illinois." Oshinsky adds: "The Crime Records Division of the FBI leaked the homosexual charge to selected members of the press. Rumors flew wildly across the Presidential campaign."

David M. Oshinsky, "The Senior G-Man", New York Times, September 15, 1991.

On October 27, 1952, while Senator Joseph McCarthy was preparing for a national broadcast from Chicago on this date, the Senatory let it be known that he intended to attack Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign as being full of “pinks, punks, and pansies.”  

Democrats White House aides let it be known that if McCarthy attacked Stevenson on the basis of sexual orientation they would leak General Marshall’s 1945 letter to Eisenhower harshly critical of Eisenhower’s plans to divorce his wife Mamie and marry Kay Summersby. McCarthy backed down, and his broadcast was relatively innocuous.

Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower: In War and Peace, page 546. Research request: full citation?

1952
J. Edgar Hoover (Writer, Hollywood film, Walk East on Beacon!. Based on Hoover's article "The Crime of the Century."

IMDB.com. Accessed December 11, 2012 from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045309/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1a

1952, October 25: Senator Joseph McCarthy Publicly Accused of Homosexuality
For some time opponents of McCarthy had been accumulating evidence concerning his homosexual activities. Several members of his staff, including Roy Cohn and David Schine, were also suspected of having a sexual relationship.

Although well-known by political journalists, the first article about it did not appear until Hank Greenspun published an article in the Las Vegas Sun in 25th October, 1952.

Greenspun wrote that: "It is common talk among homosexuals in Milwaukee who rendezvous in the White Horse Inn that Senator Joe McCarthy has often engaged in homosexual activities."

McCarthy considered a libel suit against Greenspun but decided against it when he was told by his lawyers that if the case went ahead he would have to take the witness stand and answer questions about his sexuality. In an attempt to stop the rumours circulating, McCarthy married his secretary, Jeannie Kerr. Later the couple adopted a five-week old girl from the New York Foundling Home.

Paragraphing added. Accessed Dec. 10, 2012, from: https://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm 

Another version: "In 1952, using rumors collected by [columnist Drew] Pearson, Nevada publisher Hank Greenspun wrote that McCarthy was a homosexual. The major journalistic media refused to print the story, and no notable McCarthy biographer has accepted the rumor as probable."  The allegation is specifically rejected in Richard H. Rovere.

Richard H. Rovere , Senator Joe McCarthy (University of California Press, 1959), page 68. ISBN 0-520-20472-7.

In 1953 Joseph McCarthy married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office. He and his wife adopted a baby girl, whom they named Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.  Research request: Full citation?

1952, December: Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr.: "probably a suicide"
Dudly Clendinen writes:

Just before Christmas in 1952, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, let President Dwight D. Eisenhower know that the man Eisenhower had appointed as secretary to the president, his friend and chief of staff, my godfather, Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., was a homosexual.

Clendinin writes that, late in 1956, Confidential, "a smut and scandal tabloid probably fed by the FBI, published a lurid exposé" about Arthur Vandenberg, Jr. After this, President Eisenhower cut his contacts with Vandenberg, who also resigned from his university job. On January 18, 1968, Vandenberg died at the age of 60, probably a suicide.

Dudly Clendinen, Dudly. "J. Edgar Hoover, ‘Sex Deviates’ and My Godfather". New York Times, November 25, 20011

1953: Executive Order 10450
The FBI's Sex Deviates program "was expanded in 1953 after a presidential order by Dwight Eisenhower made federal employment of homosexuals illegal."[16] Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, which mandated the firing of any federal employees guilty of “sexual perversion.”

Clendinen, Dudly. "J. Edgar Hoover, ‘Sex Deviates’ and My Godfather". New York Times, November 25, 20011.

1953-1970s
FBI: Files on Surveillance of Homosexual Groups.

Catalogued and in the archive of the National Museum of LGBT History at the LGBT Center, New York City.

1953, February 4: Don Reynolds
On this date Air Force Mayor Don Reynolds is mentioned on a list of presumed homosexuals distributed by the FBI.

On July 5, 1953 journalist Drew Pearson quotes a statement by Major Don Reynolds at a Senate hearing on immigrants. Reynolds reportedly said that US government bureaucrats who processed immigrants' applications for admittance to the US were "loaded with Communists, sex deviates, and Jews." Reynolds listed the names of the bureaucrats.

On July 8, 1953, in response to the hearing reported by Pearson, the FBI forwarded information from its Sex Deviates Program to the US Civil Service Commission.

Douglas M. Charles, Hoover's War, pages 121, 146.  

1953, February 27: Charles E. Bohlen
President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Charles Bohlen as United States ambassador to the Soviet Union. Conservative Republicans opposed Bohlen.

Asked by Secretary of State ALlen Dulles foran investigation of Bohlen, Hoover on March 16, 1953 issued a twenty-one page report. It contained an interview and detailed information on a Bohlen's associate allegedly  homosexual associate Carmel Offie. (See xxxxxxxx)

On March 17, 1953, Hoover met with Secretary of State John Foster Dulless and CIA Director Allen Dulles and recommended against Bohlen's appointment. Hoover said there "was no direct evidence" of Bohlen's homosexuality, but "it was a fact that several of his closest friends and intimate associates were known homosexuals."

On March 18, 1993, Senator Joseph McCarthy phoned Hoover to ask what the FBI director knew about Bohlen. McCarthy asked asked Hoover if Bohlen was a homosexual. Hoover said he didn't know, but that Bohlen "is associating with individuals of that type."

The FBI's information about Bohlen came from interviews with three of Bohlen's State Department associates.

One woman, for example, told the FBI that Bohlen's "manner of speech indicated effeminacy and she is of definite belief he has strong homosexual tendencies." She said that Bohlen "walks, acts and talks like a homosexual." She based her assessment on "considerable reading in abnormal psychology". She said that she "has met many homosexuals and claims she is able . . . to discern homosexual tendencies in individuals."

A second FBI source, a State Department security officer, said that the State Department's index cards on "suspected homosexuals" included one saying "that Bohlen was associating with sexual perverts."

A third source said "an admitted homosexual gave Bohlen as a reference in a Government application."

Theoharis, J. Edgar Hoover, Sex, and Crime, pages 24-29.

1953, November 17
Photo, Hoover and Tolson. Caption: FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover is shown as he told a Senate Internal Security Subcommittee today that he was notified in February 1947, that Harry Dexter White was being retained in an important international post, so he could be kept under surveillance. He said that his source of information was Tom C. Clark, then Attorney General.

Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U772154INP

1954, May 22
Photo, Hoover and Tolson: Original caption: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (right) and his assistant Clyde Tolson, at Pilmico Race Track, MD. for running of preakness.

Corbis Images: Stock Photo ID: U1057939. Date Photographed: May 22, 1954.

1954, June 19: Senator Lester Hunt's Suicide
On this date Senator Lester Hunt, a Democratic Senator from Wyoming, committed suicide. It was later revealed that his 24-year-old son had been arrested on June 9, 1953 by the Washington DC police for soliciting sex from a male undercover police officer in Lafayette Swuare. Republican Senators threatened to make this arrest known to Senator Hunt's constituents if he ran for another term. This incident inspired the novel and motion picture Advise and Consent in which the blackmailer of the Senator with a homosexual incident in his past is a left-leaning member of the Senate - ignoring the fact that the actual blackmailers belonged to the Republican Party.

Re FBI files on the Hunts, Roger McDaniel, author of Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Whyoming Senator Lester Hunt, says that "A Freedom of Information request seeking FBI records regarding Senator Hunt and his son resulted in disappointment. It would hardly be a surprise the J. Edgar Hoover would have had such files, given the directors penchant for collecting that kind of information. However, the agency lawyers said the records might have once existed but do not now. 'Records which may be response to your FOIPA request were destroyed betweeen August 1, 1993, and May 16, 2008.'" Rodger McDaniel, Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Whyoming Senator Lester Hunt (Cody, Wyoming: Wordsworth, 2013), p. xix. Research request: other reliable sources on FBI involvement?

1954, October 22: George Washington University; New York University
"The FBI did not restrict its interest in sexual behavior to government employees. On the explicit instructions of Hoover, it 'confidentially made available to George Washington University information concerning sex deviates or Communists employed as teachers there.' It did the same at New York University where it 'confidentially adivsed a contact at the University as to sex deviate practices of an instructor.'

"Memorandum, [name deleted], to Mr. Rosen, October 22, 1954. Quoted in Sigmund Diamond,Compromised Campus: The Collaboration of Universities with the Intelligence Community, 1945-1955 (Oxford University Press, 1992, 371 pages.

1955, March
J. Edgar Hoover publishes "How Safe Is Your Youngster? in The American Magazine.

J. Edgar Hoover. "How Safe Is Your Youngster?" The American Magazine (March 1955), 19, 99-101. Research request: copy of and content of this?

1955, May 10:  Louis Arlan Kerr
FBI File: “On May 10, 1955, Agents of the FBI arrested Louis Arlan Kerr at New Orleans, Louisiana, on a federal warrant charging a violation of the Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property Statut[e]. While being interviewed concerning the federal charge on which he was arrested, Kerr volunteered information that he was a homosexual. He furnished the names of 45 individuals with whom he claimed to have had homosexual relations since 1951. Kerr also stated that he had a long standing friendship with Dorothy Dandridge, Negro movie actress. However, he added that she was in no way a sex deviate.“

FBI Vault. Dorothy Dandridge, Part 1 of 1. Report headed “Confidential,” dated August 23, 1956 , page 4. See [https://vault.fbi.gov/Dorothy%20Dandridge/Dorothy%20Dandridge%20Part%201%20of%201/view

1955, October 15: "queers", "lesbians", "homosexuals", and "the 'gay life'"
An FBI report refers to "queers", "lesbians", "homosexuals", and "the 'gay life'".

F.B.I.: “Notorious Types and Places of Amusement”, October 15, 1955-April 15, 1956. Research request: full cite?

1958
A Florida Legislative Committee ("The Johns Committee") began interrogating suspected homosexuals among students and faculty on Florida campuses before the Legislature gave specific authorization for the investigation of homosexuals. In 1958, committee chairman Johns illegally sent a covert investigator to the University of Florida after his son, Jerome Johns, told his father that "effeminate instructors had perverted the curriculum."

Wikipedia: Florida Legislative Committee. Accessed December 5, 2011. See also: 1961, Florida. Research request: FBI connection to this investigation? Files?

1958 and 1959: Parties in New York?
According to a strongly contested account in Anthony Summers' biography of Hoover published in 1993, Susan Rosenstiel said she attended two parties, in 1958 and 1959, in New York, at which J. Edgar Hoover was dressed as a woman and had sex with men.

Potter, "Queer Hoover", 355-356: This account refers to Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993), 253–55. See also: 1993.