Homosexuality and Science Controversies in the Sciences Animals and Science, Niall Shanks The Evolution Wars, Michael Ruse Homosexuality and Science,Vernon A. Rosario Forthcoming: Consciousness, Anthony Freeman Cosmologies in Collision, George Gale Experimenting on Humans, Susan Lederer Freud and Psychoanalysis, Malcolm Macmillan The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, Carol Cleland Women in Science, Leigh Whaley Homosexuality and Science A Guide to the Debates Vernon A.Rosario Foreword by Richard Pillard B Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England Sigmund Freud's letter to an American mother, 9 April 1935. Copyright A.W.Freud et al. Reprinted by permis- sion of the Freud Archives. Blanche M. Baker,“Toward Understanding,” ONE 7 (January): 25–27 and ONE 7 (March): 25–26 reprinted by permission of the ONE Institute and Archives, Los Angeles. “Homosexuals in Medicine,” New England Journal of Medicine. Copyright 1970, Massachusetts Medical Society.All rights reserved. “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals,” New York Times, July 3, 1981. Copyright 1981 New York Times. Reprinted by permission.George W.Henry, 1937, “Psychogenic Factors in Overt Homosexuality,” American Journal of Psychiatry 93: 889–908. Copyright 1937, the American Psychiatric Association. Reprinted by permission.Christopher Wicks, 1958, “It Is Natural After All,” ONE 6(1): 19–21. Reprinted by permission of the ONE Institute and Archives, Los Angeles. Franklin Kameny, 1965, “Does Research into Homosexuality Matter?” The Ladder 9 (May): 14–20. Reprinted by permission. Judd Marmor, 1973, “Homosexuality and Cultural Value Systems,” American Journal of Psychiatry 130: 1208–1209. Copyright 1973, the American Psychiatric Association. Reprinted by permission. Copyright © 2002 by Vernon A. Rosario II All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other- wise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosario,Vernon A. Homosexuality and science : a guide to the debates / Vernon A. Rosario II ; foreword by Richard Pillard. p. cm. — (Controversies in science) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57607-281-9 1. Homosexuality—Research—History. I. Title. II. Series. QP81.6.R656 2002 616.85'83—dc21 2002000201 0807060504030210987654321 ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper I. For Andrea Contents Foreword,Richard Pillard ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Victorian Doctors Tackle Onanism and the Sexual Perversions 5 2 Turn-of-the-Century Sexual Inverts 39 3 From the Gay Twenties to Homosexual Panic 59 4 Screening Out Homosexuals 87 5 The Cold War and the Sexual Revolution 103 6 The Triumph and Decline of Psychiatric Models 127 7 “Off the Couches, into the Streets!” 149 8 From Gay Pride to the Gay Plague 167 9 Millennial Queers 187 Documents 221 Gynomania (1881) 221 In Defense of Cross-Dressing (1884) 224 Alice Mitchell of Memphis: A Case of Sexual Perversion or “Urning”(a Paranoiac) (1892) 225 Sexual Inversion in Men (1896) 229 Effeminate Men and Masculine Women (1900) 233 Homo Sexual Complexion Perverts in St.Louis:Note on a Feature of Sexual Psychopathy (1907) 235 The Psychology of the Acute Homosexual Panic (1921) 237 The Biological Sport of Fairie-ism (1934) 240 Why Do Homosexuals Undergo Treatment? (1934) 248 vii Psychogenic Factors in Overt Homosexuality (1937) 250 Can Homosexuality Be Cured? (1951) 260 It Is Natural After All (1958) 263 Does Research Into Homosexuality Matter? (1965) 265 Homosexuality and Cultural Value Systems (1973) 271 Chronology 275 Glossary 279 Bibliography 285 Index 309 About the Author 323 viii • Contents Foreword ttraction between the sexes is so much the rule in human nature that Asame-sex desire cries for an explanation. Sexologists for 150 years have argued about whether homosexuality is a form of mental disorder-a perversion-or a normal variant of desire, and whether this desire is inborn, the product of culture, or by some alchemy as yet unknown, something of both. More recently the study of sexual orientation has moved from the back chapters of psychopathology texts to become an influential topic in the scientific disciplines from molecular biology to bioethics. The sentinel event in this evolution was the publication of the two “Kinsey reports” in 1948 and 1953. Kinsey’s sex histories taken from some 18,000 Americans showed that we were busily at work with sexual endeavors of every sort: before, during, and after marriage; from infancy to senility; alone; with each other; and now and then with other species. Kinsey’s work did not in fact differ radically from prior sexuality surveys save in the monumental scope and obsessive detail that were Kinsey’s academic style. But coming as they did to a postwar, pleasure-starved America, the “Kinsey Reports” were greeted with delight and a place on the best-seller list. The censure of the erotophobes was of course expected. Particularly troubling to them was the incidence Kinsey reported for same-sex behav- ior. It appeared that homosexuality was not limited to an effete coterie in Greenwich Village or Paris but was reported by a substantial minority of Americans and they were of every demographic stripe that the Kinsey team could measure. Gays, it turned out, were everywhere-teaching chil- dren, hearing confession, running for office, standing under the next shower head at the gym. The recognition of a critical mass of potential members encouraged the first lesbian and gay organizations, the Daughters of Bilitis and the Matta- chine Society, who in turn worked to expand research on sexual orientation beyond the prisons and mental hospitals. But two decades passed before the social revolution of the 1960s stimulated lesbians and gays to declare their sexual orientation openly-come out-as a matter of survival politics. Another two decades went by during which the study of sexual ori- entation developed as an academic discipline in the social and medical ix sciences. This happened at first because of the research effort re- quired to deal with the crisis as AIDS evolved from a “gay disease” to a worldwide epidemic. Also important was research indicating that a gay orientation may be innate: its precursors appear in early child- hood, and a strong familial trend suggests possible hereditary com- ponents. This raises a fundamental question: how can a trait that must surely confer a reproductive penalty have survived in substan- tial numbers in human populations everywhere? Your guide to the history of scientific thought about these mat- ters is Dr.Vernon Rosario, a friend and discussion colleague of many years. Trained as a physician and historian of science, Dr. Rosario de- scribes the mutual influence of sexual science and the social context that surrounds it. His scholarship will impress those among you who already know something about this subject; his balanced and lucid ex- position will appeal to most of you and annoy a few. I have watched Dr. Rosario’s prodigious intellect over the years and am delighted to recommend this book.You will be entertained, informed, and piqued to read it. Richard C.Pillard,M.D. x•Foreword Acknowledgments he work of this book really began my first year in graduate school, so Tits publication affords me the enormous pleasure of thanking a great many people who have been dear friends, colleagues, and supporters for many years. My colleagues and mentors at Harvard University, the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and the cyberacademy have had a direct hand in shaping how I think about the history of science and psychiatry: Garland Allen,Allan Brandt,Anne Fausto- Sterling, David Halperin,Anne Harrington, Karla Jay, Maggie Magee, Diana Miller, Everett Mendelsohn, Robert Nye, Dorothy Porter, James Steakley, Jennifer Terry,and Shirah Vollmer. I particularly thank Jonathan Ned Katz for his pioneering work, which first inspired my research in the field. Many friends, in more or less formal ways, have been equally in- trigued by the historical, clinical, and political issues I deal with in this book. They have engaged me in ongoing conversation and debate over the years, and I am grateful for their enduring wisdom, encouragement, and affection: Paula Bennett, Joel Braslow and Christine Schneider, Alice Dreger, Sandra Harding, Martha Kirkpatrick and Nadia Doubins, Harlan Lane and Frank Philip,Andrew London, Richard Pillard, Susan Rosenfeld, Margaret Schabas, William Summers, and Sharon Traweek. Luisa, Gio- vanni, and Ann Koll have been my warmest supporters and my New York family on numerous research trips to the Big Apple. I have undoubtedly stolen many a good idea from dinner conversations with my closest friends: Kent Brintnall, Lawrence Cohen, Kaila Compton, Lawrence Eaton, Robert Grimm, Severino Lozano, Micheline and Edward Rice- Maximin, Thomas Spear, Chris Thorman, and Marshall Wong. I have rehearsed many of the ideas and narratives here with my stu- dents at Harvard University and UCLA over the years, and I appreciate their curiosity and challenges. I am especially grateful to Margaret Gibson and Matthew Macintosh, who volunteered as research assistants. My edi- tors at ABC-CLIO, Kevin Downing and Melanie Stafford, have been good- humored and patient throughout the publication process. Finally, I am thankful for the love and support of my family and my partner, Andrea Medici, despite the inevitable neglect caused by my preoccupation with dusty books and my computer. xi My research and writing on this project were sustained by multi- ple sources: a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fel- lowship; the UCLA Center for Cultural Studies of Science, Technol- ogy, and Medicine; the UCLA Center for the Study of Women; and the Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities at the University of Pennsyl- vania.