Queer History 117: The Boys of Boise Scandal

In 1955, the sleepy city of Boise, Idaho became ground zero for one of the most fucked-up anti-gay witch hunts in American history. What began as arrests of three men exploded into a moral panic that would rip families apart like wet paper, crush reputations under its boot, and drive some to blow their brains out—all under the bullshit guise of "protecting the children."

The question still burns decades later: How the fuck did a community transform ordinary citizens into targets, and why did so many jump on the goddamn bandwagon?

The Match That Lit the Fire

On Halloween night 1955, four men—Ralph Cooper, Charles Brokaw, Larry Oberg and Vernon Cassel—were dragged off in handcuffs. Cooper and Brokaw got slapped with "lewd conduct with a minor child" charges and Cassel with "infamous crimes against nature"—the pearl-clutching way of saying sodomy.

What star…