Growing up before Stonewall
It is easy to forget what it must have been like in the old days to grow up with sexual and emotional feelings that were different. This book tells the stories of eleven American gay men who tried to understand their identities in the years before the modern gay liberation movement began. From the 1920s through the 1960s, from a variety of regions and social classes, the men describe their families, early childhood sexual experiences, coming out in settings unlike the gay neighborhoods and communities of today, and their current romantic and sexual lives. For some men the military presented the opportunity to explore their personal and social identities; while for others, a chance encounter in a seminary, an accidentally discovered gay bar, or a heterosexual marriage provoked them into exploring deeper needs and desires. The variety of experiences illustrates the numerous ways individuals come to know their gay selves in an often unfriendly and hostile world. Interviews with a contemporary elder of the gay movement and a heterosexual psychiatrist, instrumental in arguing against categorizing homosexuality as a mental disorder, supplement the original eleven stories. Enlightening, sensitive and entertaining, the collection will be a landmark work in the growing field of gay and lesbian writing.
Peter M. Nardi is Professor of Sociology, Pitzer College, Claremont, California. David Sanders is Emeritus Attending Psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles. Judd Marmor is Franz Alexander Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Growing up before Stonewall
Life stories of some gay men
Peter M. Nardi, David Sanders and Judd Marmor
First published 1994
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
1994 Peter M. Nardi, David Sanders and Judd Marmor
Typeset in Times by Michael Mepham, Frome, Somerset
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
has been applied for
ISBN 0415101514 (hbk)
ISBN 0415101522 (pbk)
Peter M. Nardi, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges located near Los Angeles. He completed his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame. He has written many articles for academic publications on such varied topics as magic and magicians, mens friendships, anti-gay hate crimes and violence, the social impact of AIDS, and alcoholism and families. He edited Mens Friendships (1992, Sage Publications) and a special issue of California Sociologist on The Social Impact of AIDS. He is politically active in the gay community, having served as chair of the Sociologists Lesbian and Gay Caucus of the American Sociological Association, co-chair of the Los Angeles Gay Academic Union, and as co-president and board member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
David Sanders, M.D. is Emeritus Attending Psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California (Los Angeles). He was Director of Residency Training and Acting Director of the Department of Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In private practice for over thirty years, he is a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has written many scientific papers on various psychiatric and public health issues.
Judd Marmor, M.D. is Franz Alexander Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California (Los Angeles). He is a former President of the American Psychiatric Association and of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. Among over 300 scientific publications, he has written Modern Psychoanalysis (1968) and Psychiatry in Transition (1974), and edited Sexual Inversion: The Multiple Roots of Homosexuality (1965) and Homosexual Behavior: A Modern Reappraisal (1980).
Acknowledgments
Assistance in preparing the manuscript was provided by Sandy Hamilton, Sean Martinez, and Lin Morris. We also give special thanks to Jim Moore who, when money for a project like this was impossible to obtain from the usual grant sources, helped with a generous gift to do a pilot study. Ultimately, this led to Dr. Marmor obtaining a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The Pitzer College Research and Awards Committee provided a small grant for manuscript preparation and transcription.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association took the position that homosexuality was not by itself a mental illness. This view, however, was not shared by many of its members. Some 40 percent of the full membership did not agree with the conclusions of the scientific committee, despite convincing research from Evelyn Hooker (1957), who confirmed what many had thought for years: that there was no essential difference in the psychopathology of homosexual and heterosexual men.
In the late 1970s, Los Angeles psychiatrists Judd Marmor and David Sanders thought that there was need for further confirmation of the Hooker results, inasmuch as large numbers of practicing psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and psychologists still took the view that homosexuals who came for treatment ought to be helped in changing their sexual orientation. They treated the problems that homosexuals presented as if the problems were caused by their homosexuality, rather than assuming that their sexual orientation was an independent, coincidental finding. Homosexuality was viewed as the pathology, as if it were unrelated to social conditions and attitudes of the time.
It was Marmors and Sanderss hypothesis that the anxiety, depression, or schizophrenia that their gay and lesbian patients exhibited was not influenced by their sexual orientation. They had much anecdotal clinical evidence that the very people who viewed themselves as helping their patients were unwittingly hurting them. These therapists did not believe that homosexuality was compatible with a reasonably healthy and productive life.
In view of this, Drs. Marmor and Sanders decided to see if they could find evidence to support the Hooker view in individual psychiatric interviews. Their original plan was to match two groups of vocationally successful men who had never had psychotherapy: one heterosexual group and one homosexual group. The aim was to gauge the quality of their lives, the differences between the two groups in their life histories, and to see if there was any difference in the perceived degree of psycho-pathology.
