The Ariston Bathhouse Raid: Unpacking a century-long legacy of anti-LGBTQ+ policing in America
snippet of one of the trial transcripts. The five surviving Ariston Bathhouse Raid trial transcripts were digitized in 2017 by the library of the City University of New York alongside the other:Lawyer: Now, did you notice the state of the defendant’s genital organ or penis, at the time that, as you say, he placed it in the anus of the man Walter BennetWitness: Yes, sir.Lawyer: In what state was it?Witness: It was in a state of erection.Lawyer: And what, if anything, did he do to Bennett other than that act?Witness: Oh, he laid down, after he withdrew his penis from –Lawyer: Well, after he withdrew his penis, did you notice the penis of the defendant?Witness: Yes, sir.Lawyer: And in what condition was the penis of the defendant, after he had withdrawn it from the anus of Bennett?Witness: In a state of collapse.The grim aftermath saw seven of the twelve men on trial sentenced to multiple years in prison.
There were no protests, no rallies, no public outcry of support. The men were carted off to serve their sentences, disappearing into the annals of an early America fraught with homophobia.While some served their full sentences, not all of the men stayed behind bars.
As is the case today, privilege could get you far in 1903. One of the convicted, George Galbert, a.k.a. George Alfred Caldwell, was part of a rich and well-connected family and he worked for famed architect John Carrere.
Influential figures, including President Theodore Roosevelt, his daughter Alice, New York Governor Benjamin Odell Jr., and railroad tycoon Edward Merriman, intervened on his behalf according to news reports.
