Male Same-Sex Intimacy and a Clergy Sex Scandal in Early 19th-Century New England

MHS Event

This essay focuses on a sex scandal surrounding the only known instance in the early U.S. of a clergyman accused of making same-sex sexual advances. The scandal points to the contested meanings of Christian manliness and the gendered construction of male networks of gossip, sex talk, and sex reform, and addresses the crucial historical question of how to distinguish among intimacy, love, spirituality, and sexual desire.