1. • Community Empowerment and the Medicalization of Homosexuality: Constructing Sexual
Identities in the 1930s
• Journal article by Henry L. Minton; Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 6, 1996
Community Empowerment and the
Medicalization of Homosexuality:
Constructing Sexual Identities in the
1930s
HENRY L. MINTON
Department of Psychology University of Windsor
IN 1937, IN A preliminary published report of a study about homosexuality,
psychiatrist George W. Henry presented a case study of "Mary Jones," a forty-nine-
year-old black actress. 1 The case, titled "Disillusioned in Marriage: Finds a Substitute
in Homosexual Liaison," contained the following excerpt: "Finally at the age of 41,
while dancing with a woman, 'something very terrific happened to me--a very electric
thing. It made me know I was homosexual.' . . . For the past five years
____________________
An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Cheiron
Society, Durham, NH, June 1993. I would like to thank Christina Simmons and two
anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, and Margaret Harter, head,
Information Services, Kinsey Institute Library; Adele A. Lerner, archivist, the New
York Hospital Archives; Nancy McCall, archivist, the Alan Mason Chesney Medical
Archives; Roxanne L. Nilan, university archivist, Stanford University; and Elin L.
Wolfe, assistant curator for manuscripts and archives, the Francis A. Countway
Library of Medicine, for their help in obtaining archival materials.
1
George W. Henry, "Psychogenic Factors in Overt Homosexuality," American
Journal of Psychiatry 93 ( 1937 ): 889-908. A more extended version of this case
study was included in George W. Henry, Sex Variants. A Study of Homosexual
Patterns, vols. 1 and 2 (New York, 1941 ), 2:563-70. In the latter publication, Henry
changed the pseudonym from Mary Jones to Pearl M. and identified her as a singer
rather than an actress. In actuality, this woman was Edna Thomas, an Afro-American
actress who was prominent in Harlem homosexual circles (personal communication
from Eric Garber, May 16, 1994). Thomas's lesbian partner was also included in
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:672-81, as Pamela D. For a discussion of Harlem's
homosexual subculture, see Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay
Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden from History. Reclaiming the Gay and
Lesbian Past, ed. Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey, Jr.
(New York, 1989 ), pp. 318-31.
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2. she has been living with a white woman. This woman is 'one of the finest women I have
ever known. She has come to be very, very dear to me-not just for sex alone--it's a very
great love.' . . . 'This last relationship affords a tenderness I have never known.'" 2 In this
case study, there is a juxtaposition of third-person, psychiatric interpretation, as
exemplified by the title, with first-person, experiential narrative. This contrast in genre
was given fuller expression in Henry 1941 two-volume monograph, Sex Variants: A
Study of Homosexual Patterns, based on a sample of eighty "socially well adjusted
homosexuals" living in New York City. 3
Henry's study was sponsored by the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, a
privately funded and incorporated body, established in 1935 by Robert Latou
Dickinson. Dickinson was a prominent gynecologist who was also one of the leaders of
the American birth control movement and a pioneer in sex research. 4 The committee
was composed of medical specialists and social and biological scientists who had
expertise in human sexuality and deviant behavior.
What is especially noteworthy about the committee's origins was the involvement of the
homosexual community. Dickinson had been in contact with a "Miss Jan Gay" who had
collected three hundred case histories of lesbians over a ten-year period, using a variety
of archival sources including Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin.
5
By the mid-1930s, Jan Gay, who was born in 1902 and whose real name was Jan
Goldburg, had had a multifaceted career as a journalist, novelist, writer of children's
travel books, and activist for the nudist movement. 6 Her 1932 novel about nudism in
Europe was banned in several states. She used the pseudonym "Gay" because this was
becoming a popular code word in the homosexual community of the 1930s. 7 A
manuscript based on her case histories was accepted by a British publisher contin-
____________________
2
Henry, "Psychogenic Factors," p. 898.
3
A one-volume edition was published in 1948.
4
See David M. Kennedy, Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger
(New Haven, CT, 1970 ); James Reed, From Private Vice to Public Virtue (New
York, 1978 ).
5
Robert Latou Dickinson to Lewis M. Terman, December 13, 1934, and January 28,
1935, Lewis M. Terman Papers, box 12, folder 26, Stanford University Archives.
6
"Obituary of Jan Gay", New York Times ( September 13, 1960 ), p. 37; Thomas
Painter, "Gay, Jan," in Index of Names, Thomas Painter Papers, Kinsey Institute
Library, Indiana University.
7
For a discussion of the lexicon of the male homosexual community of the period, see
George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the
Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York, 1994 ), pp. 12-23. With respect to the use
of "gay" in the lesbian community, see Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight
Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York, 1992 ),
p. 106.
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gent on her ability to obtain medical data that would "validate" her research. 8 With this
goal in mind, she approached Dickinson.

3. As an activist for homosexual rights, Gay faced a dilemma that was to haunt activists
until the 1960s when a national gay and lesbian movement was strong enough to
directly challenge the medicalization of homosexuality. In order to publish scholarly
work that would serve the cause of homosexual rights, community activist-researchers,
like Gay, were forced to obtain sponsorship and authorial cooperation from physicians
and scientists who provided the legitimacy for such undertakings. The interests of
medical and scientific sexologists, however, were incompatible with the objectives of
the homosexual rights movement. Rather than empowering the homosexual community,
medical and scientific specialists were eager to lay claim to the study of homosexuality
as a means of furthering their expertise and legitimacy as agents of social control. As
Jeffrey Weeks points out, sexologists sought to reinforce existing power relations. 9
Indicative of the regulatory objectives of the sexologists, Henry's firstand third-person
split narrative style would, in the end, undermine Gay's hopes for forging a dialogue
between the homosexual subjects and the medical/scientific researchers. Rather than
opening communication and understanding, this discursive practice, with its
medicalized overtone, served to further the subjugation of homosexual men and women
to the scrutiny of the medical gaze. Nevertheless, the active involvement of the
homosexual community anticipated subsequent attempts at changing the power
imbalance between subjects and researchers in investigations of homosexuality.
The sex variants study reflected a strong commitment on the part of both the
homosexual community and the scientific investigators to carry out a study of
homosexuality. My concern here is to analyze the objectives sought by each group and
to explore the nature of the relationship between them. I will begin with a presentation
of the background and results of the sex variants study and then consider the broader
context of this investigation by discussing how it is situated within the rise of a
homosexual community and the medicalization of homosexuality.
THE COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF SEX
VARIANTS
Gay's selection of Dickinson as a potential medical collaborator seems to be connected
with his apparent feminist and lesbian sympathies. Dickin-
____________________
8
Jan Gay, "An Evaluation of the Group Therapy Techniques and Dynamics of
Alcoholics Anonymous," manuscript attached to correspondence of Jan Gay to Alfred
C. Kinsey, October 25, 1950, Kinsey Institute Library.
9
Jeffrey Weeks, Sexuality and Its Discontents (London, 1985 ), p. 79.
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son, who was seventy-three when Gay contacted him in 1934, was the leading medical
advocate for birth control. In 1923, he had created the Committee on Maternal Health,
which was concerned with research on various issues of fertility. Thus, within the
medical community, he was a highly visible supporter of an issue that was of major
concern to feminists. 10 Moreover, Dickinson had published a series of sex histories,
based on his gynecological practice dating back to 1890. These appeared in the form of

4. two monographs coauthored by Dickinson and Lura Beam: A Thousand Marriages in
1931, and The Single Woman in 1934. 11 Beam had a background in psychology, and
she transposed Dickinson's case material into a finished product of analysis and
interpretation. 12
The Single Woman included an analysis of homosexuality, based on the homoerotic
experiences of twenty-eight women and four men. 13 This analysis tended to be
sympathetic to the notion that homosexual expression was not necessarily a form of
sexual maladjustment. The authors pointed out that it was premature to establish a
homosexual "type" because the data were based on "psychopathic cases--sometimes
observed in legal suits, in institutions or after serious collapse." 14 Moreover, contrary to
the expectation of gender role reversal, the authors noted that "homosexual interests
were explained only in terms of femaleness, with no male types or behavior." 15 Beam,
however, did point out that the physician's (Dickinson) advice giving was premised on
the assumption that the ideal form of sexual expression could only be achieved through
marriage. 16
____________________
10
Dickinson, however, was often in conflict with birth control reformer Margaret
Sanger. See Kennedy; Reed.
11
Robert Latou Dickinson and Lura Beam, A Thousand Marriages: A Medical Study of
Sex Adjustment (Baltimore, 1931 ), and The Single Woman: A Medical Study in Sex
Education (Baltimore, 1934 ).
12
Dickinson and Beam, A Thousand Marriages, p. xx, and The Single Woman, p. vi. In
these books, Beam adopted a feminist perspective by focusing on the changing
historical context that affected women's lives between 1895 and 1930, as well as
analyzing the dominant-submissive relationship between the male physician
(Dickinson) and his female patients.
13
Dickinson and Beam, The Single Woman, pp. 203-22. The twenty-eight female cases
of homosexuality were out of a total number of 350 cases containing details of sexual
experience. The male cases were husbands of patients, or in one case a man who
proposed marriage to a patient. The female cases were characterized by an emotional
relationship that did not always include sexual expression. Fifteen of the women and
three of the men subsequently married.
14
Ibid., p. 204.
15
Ibid., p. 432.
16
Dickinson, unlike Beam, supported the medical model of homosexuality, as revealed
in Robert Latou Dickinson, "The Gynecology of Homosexuality," in Henry, Sex
Variants (n. 1 above), 2:1085-1146.
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This tolerant perspective on homosexuality reflected Lura Beam's lesbian sensibility.
She was involved in a long-standing relationship with Louise Stevens Bryant, a Ph.D.
biostatistician who was the executive secretary of the Maternal Health Committee. Both
Beam and Bryant were secretly lesbian. 17 Thus, The Single Woman, with its relatively
positive presentation of homosexual cases, might have caught the attention of Jan Gay
and signaled to her Dickinson's apparent (though not real) openness to homosexuality.
Gay did not know Beam, nor would she have been aware of Beam's lesbian identity. 18
Gay moved in a homosexual circle connected with the arts and "bohemian" subculture

5. of the interwar period, while Beam and Bryant were of an older generation of lesbian
couples who achieved professional and social status within mainstream society. 19
When Dickinson read Gay's manuscript notes, he was very interested in supporting her
work and extending it to include the medical data she needed. 20 To help her get started,
he secured a research fund of $1,000 from an anonymous donor, described as a "private
citizen, a man of outstanding breadth of vision and filled with enthusiasm for scientific
research." 21 The "donor," who eventually contributed a total sum of $7,500, was
undoubtedly supportive of research on homosexuality and may have been homosexual
himself. 22
Gay's plan to enlarge upon her lesbian case histories was further expanded to include
homosexual men. This came about through her contact with Thomas Painter, a twenty-
nine-year-old gay man who had completed his studies at Union Theological Seminary
in the summer of 1934. 23 He had begun a research project on male prostitution and, like
Gay, was looking for medical sponsorship. Gay introduced Painter to
____________________
17
See Reed (n. 4 above), pp. 409-10.
18
In recalling the events that led up to Dickinson's creation of the Committee for the
Study of Sex Variants, Beam reports that the idea of doing research on
homosexuality was probably presented to Dickinson by someone else. She does not
indicate that she had any awareness that it was Jan Gay who approached Dickinson.
Lura Beam to James Reed, December 21, 1970, Robert Latou Dickinson Papers, box
16, folder 6, Countway Library of Medicine, Boston.
19
For an analysis of the changing generations of lesbian relationships, see Faderman (n.
7 above).
20
Gay, "An Evaluation" (n. 8 above). Josephine H. Kenyon, a pediatrician with a
special interest in women's health and a member of the Maternal Health Committee,
also read Gay's manuscript notes and was very supportive.
21
Eugen Kahn, "Foreword," in Henry, Sex Variants, 1:viii.
22
The total figure of $7,500 was the sum of several installments that were made
available from 1934 to 1938. See Eugen Kahn and Robert W. Laidlaw to Lewis M.
Terman, June 6, 1938, Lewis M. Terman Papers.
23
Thomas Painter, "Chronology," Thomas Painter Papers, and "Gay, Jan" (n. 6 above).
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Dickinson, who was enthusiastic about Painter's proposed work. With the potential of
Painter as a resource for obtaining male subjects, Dickinson encouraged Gay to expand
her case histories to include males. Dickinson, who had already hired Gay to the
Maternal Health Committee's staff, added Painter and Painter's research associate,
Gershon Legman, as staff members. Neither Gay, Painter, nor Legman was publicly out
as homosexual to the committee.
With the funding and personnel in hand, Dickinson set out to gain the Maternal Health
Committee's sponsorship for both the case history and male prostitution projects. This,
however, proved to be too much for Bryant, the committee's executive secretary. She
suffered a nervous breakdown and resigned. 24 With Bryant's opposition, Dickinson was
unable to gain the committee's sponsorship. 25 After failing to interest the Committee for

6. Research in Problems of Sex, Dickinson went about creating his own committee--the
Committee for the Study of Sex Variants. 26
Toward the end of January 1935, in consultation with Gay, Dickinson began recruiting
members. 27 Attached to each invitation was a proposal for creating the committee that
included a brief description of the two planned studies. Within two months, a nineteen-
member committee of medical and scientific specialists was constituted. 28 The
membership included seven psychiatrists, one endocrinologist, one gynecologist, one
pediatrician, two anatomists, one physical anthropologist, two sociologists, and four
psychologists. 29 Three of the psychiatrists--Adolf Meyer,
____________________
24
Reed, pp. 183, 409-10.
25
Carney Landis to Eugen Kahn, March 25, 1935, Adolf Meyer Papers, ser. 2, unit
179, Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, Johns Hopkins University.
26
Carney Landis to Eugen Kahn, March 25, 1935, and Adolf Meyer to Eugen Kahn,
March 25, 1935, Adolf Meyer Papers.
27
Robert Latou Dickinson to Lewis M. Terman, January 28, 1935; Jan Gay,
"Qualifications for the Proposed 'Evaluation of the Group Therapy Techniques and
Dynamics of Alcoholics Anonymous,'" manuscript attached to correspondence of Jay
Gay to Alfred C. Kinsey, October 25, 1950, Kinsey Institute Library.
28
Robert Latou Dickinson and Carney Landis to Lewis M. Terman, February 11, 1935,
Lewis M. Terman Papers.
29
The psychiatrists included Clarence O. Cheney, George W. Henry, Eugen Kahn,
Marion E. Kenworthy, Robert W. Laidlaw, Adolf Meyer, and Edward A. Strecker.
Rounding out the committee were endocrinologist Harold D. Palmer, gynecologist
Robert L. Dickinson, pediatrician Josephine H. Kenyon, anatomists Earl T. Engle and
Philip E. Smith (included to provide expertise on the reproductive systems of
homosexual women), physical anthropologist Earnest A. Hooten, sociologists
Maurice R. Davie and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, and psychologists Carney Landis,
Karl S. Lashley, Catharine Cox Miles, and Lewis M. Terman. In 1938 Cheney,
Kenworthy, and Hooten left the committee and were replaced with Karl M. Bowman,
a psychiatrist, and Austin H. MacCormick, New York City's correction
commissioner.
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George W. Henry, Eugen Kahn--played key roles on the committee. Meyer, the director
of the Phipps clinic at Johns Hopkins, was the dean of American psychiatry. 30 Through
his collaboration with Clifford W. Beers, he was instrumental in organizing the National
Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1909 and was influential in the mental hygiene
movement's promotion of adjusting individuals to their social environment as the key to
mental health. Meyer's major contributions to the committee were to act as a consultant
for its organization and a liaison with various funding agencies. Henry, a former student
of Meyer, was associated with New York Hospital where he engaged in a series of
psychiatric research studies, including a study of homosexuality. 31 On the basis of this
research, Henry was asked by the committee to direct Gay's case history study. 32 Kahn,
a professor of psychiatry at Yale, was a leading exponent of the German constitutional
school of psychiatry. 33 While stressing the constitutional basis of homosexuality, he
acknowledged the role of environmental influences and believed that through

7. psychotherapy homosexuals could successfully control their impulses. Reflecting his
expertise on homosexuality, Kahn was elected committee chairman. 34 Two of the social
scientists--psychologistsLewis M. Terman and Catharine Cox Miles--were also
influential in the committee's activities. They had collaborated on the development of a
scale that measured masculinity-femininity. 35 In attempting to validate this scale,
Terman generated data demonstrating that male homosexuals scored in the direction of
femininity.
The diverse membership of the committee reflected its mandate to act as a coordinating
body for "the various scientific interests" in the field of sexual variation, and "to serve
as a scientific sponsoring agency for the
____________________
30
For overviews of Meyer's writings and influence, see Alfred Lief, ed., The
Commonsense Psychiatry of Dr. Adolf Meyer (New York, 1948 ); Gerald N. Grob,
Mental Illness and American Society, 1875-1940 (Princeton, NJ, 1983 ), pp. 112-18,
149-57.
31
George W. Henry, "Psychiatric and Constitutional Factors in Homosexuality: Their
Relation to Personality Disorders," Psychiatric Quarterly 8 ( 1934 ): 243-64; George
W. Henry and Hugh M. Galbraith, "Constitutional Factors in Homosexuality,"
American Journal of Psychiatry 13 ( 1934 ): 1249-70.
32
George W. Henry to Oskar Dietheim, November 15, 1938, Medical Biography File of
George W. Henry, Medical Archives, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
33
Eugen Kahn, Psychopathic Personality, trans. H. Flanders Dunbar (New Haven, CT,
1931 ). For Kahns views about homosexuality, see pp. 126-45.
34
Minutes of the meeting of the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, March 29,
1935, Adolf Meyer Papers.
35
Lewis M. Terman and Catharine Cox Miles, Sex and Personality: Studies in
Masculinity and Femininity (New York, 1936 ).
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furtherance of research on sexual variation." 36 In addition to the two initial projects,
plans were laid out for a hormonal study of the blood and urine of homosexuals, an
investigation of homosexuality among delinquent boys, and a study of homosexuality
among men in the merchant marine and Coast Guard. To carry out this research,
exhaustive efforts were undertaken to obtain funding. The committee, however, was
unsuccessful in gaining support from any of the existing foundations and none of the
planned projects were begun. 37 Thus, the anonymous funds from the private donor
constituted the committee's only source of funding, and this was used to support Gay's
case history project, which came to be known as the sex variants study.
The prostitution study was carried out by Painter, who used his own funds to support
Legman as his research associate. 38 Painter completed a manuscript in 1941 that was
never published. 39 Henry also studied a small sample of male prostitutes as part of a
series of studies on sex offenders. He worked on these studies with Alfred A. Gross, a
gay man who, like Painter, was not publicly out to the committee. Henry and Gross
published two preliminary reports, but, with no financial support from the committee,
their plans for a more extensive study were abandoned. 40 With the publication in 1941
of the two-volume Sex Variants monograph, the committee ceased to operate.

8. ____________________
36
Minutes of the meeting of the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, March 29,
1935, Adolf Meyer Papers.
37
Robert W. Laidlaw to Adolf Meyer, December 12, 1935, Eugen Kahn and Robert W.
Laidlaw to Adolf Meyer, June 6, 1938, Adolf Meyer Papers. Appeals for funding
were made to ten foundations. The controversial nature of homosexuality as an area
of research was undoubtedly a problem. The Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation, for
example, feared that it would lose support from conservative and wealthy donors.
38
Thomas Painter, "Legman, George," in Index of Names, Thomas Painter Papers (n. 6
above). Legman also contributed a glossary of homosexual slang terms to Henry Sex
Variants monograph.
39
Thomas Painter, "Male Homosexuals and Their Prostitutes in Contemporary
America" (unpublished manuscript, 1941). With Dickinson's encouragement, Painter
sent his manuscript to Kinsey. The manuscript is in the Thomas Painter Papers at the
Kinsey Institute Library. Painter's manuscript served as the basis for his collaborative
research relationship with Kinsey, which began in 1943. See Alfred C. Kinsey to
Thomas Painter, October 27, 1943, Thomas Painter Papers. Painter used the
pseudonym of "Will Finch" to identify his diaries, which are in the Painter Papers.
Because of the limitations in the scope of what could be covered in this article and
the more limited involvement of the Sex Variants Committee in the prostitution
study, I have chosen to focus on the sex variants study.
40
George W. Henry and Alfred A. Gross, "Social Factors in the Case Histories of One
Hundred Underprivileged Homosexuals," Mental Hygiene 22 ( 1938 ): 591-611;
George W. Henry and Alfred A. Gross, "The Homosexual Delinquent," Mental
Hygiene 25 ( 1941 ): 420-42; Eugen Kahn to Lewis M. Terman, February 1, 1940,
Lewis M. Terman Papers. Gross continued to work with Henry in counseling sex
offenders after World War II. See
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THE SEX VARIANTS STUDY
The Sex Variants monograph was published by Paul B. Hoeber, the medical book
department of Harper & Brothers, with the stipulation that the material was "prepared
for the use of the medical and allied professions only." 41 According to Henry,
physicians were especially targeted because their professional training enabled them to
be objective and free of the common prejudice directed against sex variants. Thus, they
possessed the perspective to deal with social ills and serve in the capacity of "the mental
hygiene leaders in the community." 42 In keeping with the objectives of the mental
hygiene movement, mental health and social welfare were premised on the integration
of the individual with the norms and values of the community. 43 Sexual adjustment was
one of the components of this ideal individual-society fit.
Throughout the study, Gay was employed by the committee to act as Henry's research
assistant. She was responsible for recruiting the sample of homosexual women and men.
Painter also helped in the recruitment of the male sample. If prospective subjects
indicated a willingness to participate, she obtained personal and family histories as well
as demographic data. 44 After her contact with the participants, she introduced them to
Henry under a pseudonym, which was a first name and the initial of a last name. The
background information that Gay provided enabled Henry to have some familiarity with

9. the subjects when he interviewed them at New York Hospital's Payne Whitney
Psychiatric Clinic. These psychiatric interviews were open-ended with some "guidance"
on Henry's part so that a standard series of topics would be covered, including family
background, childhood and adolescent experiences, social and work patterns, sexual
practices, and the participants' attitudes toward
____________________
George W. Henry, All the Sexes. A Study of Masculinity and Femininity (New York,
1955 ), p. xvii.
41
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), l:vi.
42
Ibid., p. ix.
43
See Fred Matthews, "In Defense of Common Sense: Mental Hygiene as Ideology and
Mentality in Twentieth-Century America," Prospects 4 ( 1979 ): 459-516.
44
Henry, Sex Variants, l:xii; Gay, "Qualifications" (n. 27 above). Henry did not specify
what these personal and family histories consisted of. In his proposal for the study,
submitted to the Sex Variants Committee, he indicated that the field-worker (Gay)
was to obtain as much information as she could from her social contacts with the
subjects. George W. Henry , "Proposal for Study of Homosexuality," undated, Adolf
Meyer Papers, ser. 2, unit 179, no. 2 (includes Sex Variants Committee
Correspondence, May 2, 1935 , to September 18, 1935). The committee, however,
was familiar with Gay's experience in collecting lesbian case histories, and Henry
thus seems to have relied on this experience in outlining her role in the sex variants
study.
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homosexuality. 45 A verbatim shorthand record was made of each respondent's remarks,
which Henry indicated had the effect of facilitating communication because it conveyed
the impression that everything that was said was of value. 46
Somewhat over two hundred individuals from New York's homosexual community
volunteered and were interviewed between 1935 and 1938. 47 The unusually large
number of volunteers suggests that these self-identified lesbians and homosexual men
were eager to cooperate in a study that was organized by community insiders, that is,
Gay and Painter. From the original subject pool, Henry selected forty men and forty
women for the sample he used in the Sex Variants monograph. According to Henry, this
selection was based on those who were particularly informative in the interviews. This
final sample was primarily made up of participants who were in their twenties and
thirties, well educated, and in the professions, fine arts, and performing arts. There was
also a small subsample of male prostitutes. With Gay's assistance in scheduling, the
participants also received a physical examination and X-ray examinations of the head,
chest, and pelvis. The women were given a pelvic examination, and some of the men
submitted semen for a fertility analysis. To supplement the X-ray indices of
morphology, about a third of the sample agreed to be photographed in the nude. Finally,
most of the sample completed the Terman-Miles measure of masculinity-femininity.
Henry's monograph includes the first-person autobiographical narratives he obtained
from his psychiatric interviews. 48 He indicated that the personal accounts were
composed "almost entirely of statements made by the subject which I have edited to

10. make a connected history." 49 Before each autobiographical statement, Henry provided a
brief "general impression," in which he described the outstanding physical, behavioral,
____________________
45
"Psychiatric Guide for Study of Homosexuals" (Interview Protocol), George W.
Henry to Members of the Sex Variants Committee, undated, attached to letter from
Robert W. Laidlaw to Lewis M. Terman, November 17, 1936 , Lewis M. Terman
Papers.
46
Follow-up interviews, based on a questionnaire, were conducted after a two-year
interval to check on statements previously made and to provide supplementary
information. Henry was assisted by another psychiatrist, August E. Witzel of
Brooklyn State Hospital. It is not clear whether Witzel conducted some of the
interviews himself, acted as a co-interviewer in some cases, or was only involved in
the follow-up phase. All of the procedures for the study are described in Henry, Sex
Variants, l:ix-xvii.
47
Henry refers to the approximate size of the original sample in a later publication. See
Henry, All the Sexes, p. xii. New York was home to the leading homosexual
community in America in the early twentieth century. For a history of New York's
gay male community during this period, see Chauncey, Gay New York (n. 7 above).
48
Each autobiography contained two sections, one on family background, the other on
personal history.
49
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), l:xi.
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and emotional characteristics of the respondent, as well as a family (genealogical) chart
with notations including the degree of aggressiveness and submissiveness of family
members. 50 Following each autobiography, Henry reported the major findings of the
physical and X-ray examinations, as well as the results of the masculinity-femininity
test. Each case ended with a section in which Henry presented his own analysis. The
male and female cases were subdivided, respectively, into three categories-bisexual,
homosexual, and narcissistic--reflecting, according to Henry, "the extent to which they
deviate from heterosexual adjustment." 51 The "bisexuals" represented those individuals
who had had some incidence of heterosexual experience, while the "narcissistic"
category reflected those who revealed narcissistic tendencies or other psychosexual
"eccentricities," such as male prostitution. 52
The participants' narratives offer a rare glimpse into the shared experiences,
sensibilities, and struggles of an underground subculture whose voices were typically
silenced in medical and scientific discourse. Among the varied themes in these texts are
expressions of positive self-identity, such as Alberta I., an artist who proclaims, "I have
a great confidence in the future. . . . Homosexuality hasnt' interfered with my work. It
has made it what it is." 53 Expressions of resistance are exemplified by Michael D., an
interior decorator who states: "I have never seen any literature on homosexuality with
which I have agreed." 54 The struggle to achieve a positive homosexual identity against
the force of social domination is reflected by Ellen T., an artist who declares, "In the
beginning I was very silly about homosexuality. Never for a moment did I think it was
anything very wrong. . . . I know now that that is stupid." 55

11. In contrast to these personal reflections of coping with a stigmatized identity, Henry
steadfastly held to a medical model of homosexuality. In discussing etiology, he
considered the role of both heredity and environment. 56 With regard to hereditary
determinants, Henry and his team of medical investigators searched for instances of
distinct structural or physiological characteristics. The only consistent distinguishing
feature
____________________
50
The background information provided by Gay contributed to Henry's impressions.
Henry acknowledged that he included observations Gay made based on her own
interactions with the participants. Ibid.
51
Ibid., p. xiv.
52
The breakdowns varied for men and women. For the men, there were five bisexuals,
twenty-two homosexuals, and thirteen narcissists; for the women, seventeen
bisexuals, fourteen homosexuals, and nine narcissists. These differences reflected the
greater incidence of heterosexual marriages among the women.
53
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:864.
54
Ibid., 1: 144.
55
Ibid., 2:795.
56
Henry's conclusions are contained in ibid., pp. 1023-28.
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was the high incidence of athletic body type among both the male and female
homosexuals, marked by broad shoulders and narrow hips, which Henry attributed to an
immature form of skeletal development. 57 While not dismissing the contribution of a
hereditary predisposition, Henry emphasized the nurturing role of the family. Family
patterns of masculinity-femininity and dominance-submission were conducive to the
generation of homosexuality in the offspring. 58 Mothers who were masculine or fathers
who were feminine, according to Henry, would each be detrimental to the nurturing of
their children's heterosexual adjustment. He spelled out examples of each: "Masculinity
in a female may be manifested in aggressive occupations, aggressive attitudes toward
society, and through intolerance of the personal relationships involved in being a wife
and mother. . . . Femininity in a male may be manifested directly as such through
dependence upon a more aggressive male or female." 59
THE RISE OF A HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY
Beginning in the 1870s, homosexual communities emerged in American cities. 60 By the
1920s and 1930s, they became relatively stable and more differentiated in terms of
social background and style. During this period, New York was home to the largest and
most vibrant lesbian and gay community. 61 Centered in Greenwich Village and Harlem,
lesbians and homosexual men established a presence in settings, such as restau-
____________________
57
Henry's conclusion was based on a similar finding in a study he conducted with a
group of psychotic patients; ibid., p. 1046. Among the physical indices, the other
major finding was the gynecological patterns reported by Dickinson; ibid., pp. 1085-
1146. Dickinson focused on such genital findings as a large and erectile clitoris as
well as an active erotic response in the presence of the examining female

12. gynecologist. He suggested that the genital findings reflected homosexual experience
(sex play) and hence could be used as a diagnostic measure. An extensive analysis of
these results plus other aspects of the sex variants study is contained in Jennifer
Terry, "Lesbians under the Medical Gaze: Scientists Search for Remarkable
Differences," Journal of Sex Research 27 ( 1990 ): 317-39, and "Siting
Homosexuality: A History of Surveillance and the Production of Deviant Subjects
(1935-1950), Volumes I-III" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Cruz,
1992 ).
58
Henry based this conclusion on the family histories he obtained in his interviews,
which were summarized in the family charts preceding each case presentation. He
also made use of the results of the Terman-Miles masculinity-femininity test, which,
as he reported, demonstrated that sex variants generally did not conform to the norms
for males and females. See Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), 2:1034.
59
Ibid., p. 1024.
60
Barry D. Adam, The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement (Boston, 1987 ); John
D'Emilio , Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities. The Making of a Homosexual
Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago, 1983 ).
61
Faderman (n. 7 above), pp. 67-79; Chauncey, Gay New York (n. 7 above); Garber (n.
1 above).
-446-
rants, speakeasies, and drag balls, that sustained their social networks and enhanced
their sense of group identity. It was this particular community whose voices were
recorded in Henry's monograph.
In addition to the creation of a relatively stable homosexual community, there were also
signs of a fledgling homosexual rights movement. While a national homophile
movement did not emerge in the United States until the 1950s, there were earlier links
to the movement in Europe. 62 Jan Gay was influenced by the work of Magnus
Hirschfeld and Havelock Ellis. She had collected some of her lesbian case histories at
Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin before it was closed by the Nazis in
1933, and her goal of publishing these histories appears to have been in keeping with
Ellis's objective of presenting a positive and tolerant view of homosexuality through
such published histories. 63 While Ellis helped to establish the tradition of presenting
case histories with the first- versus third-person split narrative, his own commentary,
unlike that of Richard von Krafft-Ebing or George Henry, did not pathologize the
personal accounts of his homosexual respondents. 64 Following Hirschfeld's lead, Gay
was also interested in therapy and the role that physicians could serve as therapists for
homosexuals. Hirschfeld had advocated that physicians should engage in a form of
therapy aimed at helping homosexuals accept their sexuality and cope with it in a hostile
society. 65
Gay's views about homosexuality and the role of the physician as therapeutic agent
appear in a brief manuscript she submitted to Dickinson for his proposed but never
completed book, "The Doctor as Marriage Counselor." 66 She underscored the need for
the physician-counselor to be knowledgeable about homosexuality and to be free of
social condem-
____________________

13. 62
As early as 1906, members of Magnus Hirschfeld Scientific Humanitarian
Committee, based in Germany, were giving public lectures in the United States. In
1924, Henry Gerber, a postal worker, established the Society for Human Rights in
Chicago, a shortlived homophile organization patterned after another German
homophile group. See Jonathan Ned Katz , Gay American History. Lesbians and Gay
Men in the U.S.A., rev. ed. (New York, 1992 ), pp. 381-83, 385-97.
63
Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. 2, 3d ed.,
revised and enlarged (Philadelphia, 1915 ).
64
See Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, with Especial Reference to
Contrary Sexual Instinct: A Medical-Legal Study (Philadelphia, 1893 ).
65
Magnus Hirschfeld, Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes (Berlin, 1914 ).
For an English translation of the section dealing with therapy, see Katz, Gay
American History, pp. 151-53.
66
Jan Gay, Section on Homosexuality for "The Doctor as Marriage Counselor,"
unpublished manuscript (five pages), undated, Robert Latou Dickinson Papers, box
11, folder 48. Dickinson book, "The Doctor as Marriage Counselor," was not
published and exists only in draft form in the Dickinson Papers.
-447-
nation. With respect to marital counseling, she noted that "patients" with an "ingrained
homosexual pattern" should be discouraged from considering marriage. Citing Ellis, she
pointed out that for such individuals, marriage would aggravate "intra-psychic" conflict
because the homosexual tendency was stronger than the heterosexual. 67 Gay's warning
about marriage was incorporated by Dickinson in referring to instances in which an
"unalterable fixation" to same-sex individuals existed. 68 In contrast to Gay, however,
Dickinson in his chapter stressed the immature and substitutional nature of
homosexuality and focused on the counselor's role as an agent for promoting
heterosexual adjustment wherever possible. Gay's views about homosexuals with long-
standing patterns of same-sex attraction also appears to have been incorporated by
Henry in his conclusions in the Sex Variants monograph. Despite his general optimism
about "curing" homosexuals, he indicated the difficulties involved in cases of
"prolonged" immature sexual behavior. 69
Gay's manuscript reveals that, beyond gaining Dickinson's initial sponsorship for her
own research, she hoped to influence medical views about marriage counseling.
Dickinson's planned book held the promise of a collaborative enterprise wherein
physicians would be alerted to the concerns of homosexuals. 70 In particular,
gynecologists could be alerted to the social pressures lesbians experienced.
Had Dickinson followed through on completing his book, Gay's authorial voice might
have been heard in his chapter on homosexuality. With respect to Henry Sex Variants
monograph, little of her own authorship seems to have survived. She claimed that her
original seventythousand-word manuscript was "assimilated" into the two volumes, but,
except for being included in the acknowledgments for her editorial assistance, she is
given no credit for her original contribution. 71 Her initial hopes of gaining legitimacy
for her own work by means of medical collaboration, as well as establishing a dialogue
between research subjects
____________________

14. 67
The citation was from Ellis Sexual Inversion.
68
Dickinson, "Homosexuality," draft dated August 5, 1942 , p. 1, Robert Latou
Dickinson Papers.
69
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), 2:1027. With respect to preventive measures in
childhood, Henry also acknowledged that a small proportion of children could not be
molded into conventional sex patterns.
70
Dickinson's prospective book was announced in the preface of The Single Woman.
See Louise Stevens Bryant, "Preface," in Dickinson and Beam, The Single Woman
(n. 11 above), p. vii.
71
Gay, "An Evaluation" (n. 8 above), and "Qualifications" (n. 27 above). Gay's input is
evident in the opening "General Impressions" section of each case where many of
Henry's comments are based on her observations and background information. Gay
also indicates that Henry consulted her about the probable veracity of each
participant's personal account.
-448-
and investigators, never came to pass. Henry's third-person psychiatric discourse was
insensitive to the empowerment struggles and concerns contained in the subjects'
personal accounts.
In addition to Gay's initiatives, the male homosexual community sought scientific
support for research on homosexuality. Their motivation appears to have been closely
connected with the changing political atmosphere of the Depression years. In the early
1930s, New York city and state authorities began a campaign to exclude homosexuals
from public gathering places. 72 In contrast to the "pansy craze" of 1930-31 in which
Times Square nightclubs featured drag shows, there was a crackdown on bars and
restaurants that catered to a male homosexual clientele. The political shift reflected a
backlash to the "moral laxity" and political corruption of the prohibition era. By the late
thirties, many bars had been closed and male homosexuals became increasingly
vulnerable to police harassment and arrest. Adding to the concerns of male
homosexuals, there was an influx of male hustlers. These men tended to be young
drifters, with little education or social opportunity, who were attracted to New York
because of its reputation as "the capital of the American homosexual world." 73 In the
midst of the Depression, they were unable to find adequate employment and turned to
prostitution as a means of survival. Their increasing presence constituted a threat,
especially to those men who were not economically and socially established and thus
did not "have powerful friends who [were] . . . capable of dealing with blackmailers." 74
In Henry and Gross's study, the prostitutes admitted to victimizing sexual partners
through blackmail threats, robbery, and physical assault. 75 There was also the
suggestion that some may have served as police informers. By revealing the
vulnerability of homosexual men to victimization, a published and scientifically
sponsored study of prostitution might have resulted in a more sympathetic reading in
legal, medical, and scientific circles. Moreover, it might have been viewed as a practical
source of information for the homosexual community regarding the potential problems
of prostitution.
The Sex Variants monograph also reveals that the research participants were committed
to contribute to a scientific investigation. As Henry commented, "Most of them
welcomed an opportunity to participate in a scientific and medical study of their

15. development and of their problems. Through this study they hope for a better
understanding of
____________________
72
See Chauncey, Gay New York (n. 7 above), pp. 331-61.
73
Henry and Gross, "Social Factors" (n. 40 above), p. 602. For a characterization of
male prostitution in New York during the 1930s, see Chauncey, Gay New York, pp.
191-93.
74
Henry and Gross, "Social Factors," p. 609.
75
Ibid., pp. 606-7.
-449-
their maladjustments and as a consequence a more tolerant attitude of society toward
them." 76 In his impressions of particular individuals, Henry also noted instances of deep
commitment. Will G."is striving to improve the lot of the underprivileged sex variant.
His interest in homosexual problems is manifested by unreserved submission of himself
for investigation." 77 Henry was an astute observer here, for, unknown to him, "Will G."
was Thomas Painter's pseudonym, and Painter viewed himself as a spokesperson for the
concerns of male hustlers. 78 Ellen T. "is easily moved to tears . . . in speaking of what
she feels is injustice to homosexuals. She is eager to help in this study and to know what
progress is being made." 79 Moreover, the participants expressed their own objectives in
being a part of scientific research. Mildred B. declared, "I'm interested in having
homosexuality better understood and in obtaining a more tolerant attitude on the part of
the general public"; 80 and Virginia K. commented, "The homosexual should have the
same position in society as the so-called normal has. They wouldnt' then all be running
around to dives and getting persecuted." 81
Contained in the Sex Variants monograph are also instances of resistance to
medicalizing discourses. George Chauncey points to such forms of resistance in his
treatment of the gay male subculture during the 1920s and 1930s. 82 Consistent with
Chauncey's claims, several of the participants took the opportunity of using their
interview with Henry to declare their resistance to being pathologized. Eric D., for
example, stated, "I have no regrets for my homosexuality. . . . I would have become
neurasthenic if I hadn't adopted homosexuality because that is my normal." 83 Julius E.
proclaimed, "I've never thought much about my homosexuality. It just seemed the
natural thing to do." 84 And Gene S., an artist, commented, "I don't want to be normal
because I'm a creative person and I have a creative life." 85
The motivation and commitment of the homosexual women and men associated with
the sex variants study were an effort to gain community empowerment. Carrying on the
initiatives of earlier homophiles, such as
____________________
76
Henry, Sex Variants, l:x.
77
Ibid., p. 370.
78
Painter appears to be the only activist who was also a participant in the sex variants
study. Painter reveals his identity as "Will G." in Painter, Male Homosexuals (n. 39
above)
79
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), 2:787, 789.

16. 80
Ibid., p. 745.
81
Ibid., p. 772.
82
Chauncey, Gay New York (n. 7 above), pp. 5-6.
83
Henry, Sex Variants, 1:156.
84
Ibid., p. 531.
85
Ibid., p. 254.
-450-
Hirschfeld and Ellis, collaboration with medical and scientific specialists held the
potential for obtaining social acceptance. Moreover, informed scientific research based
on the life experiences of homosexuals could be used as a basis for supporting the cause
of homosexual rights. In fact, this strategy was used by the sex variants activists. A
prepublication summary of the Sex Variants monograph was presented as legal evidence
by the owners of Gloria's, a New York bar threatened with closure because it attracted a
gay following, especially men who behaved in a feminine manner. The bar owners
argued that the research results did not support a necessary relationship between
effeminacy and homosexuality, and thus it was not possible to legally claim that the bar
was catering to an identifiable group. 86 The State Liquor Authority, nevertheless, won
its case and the bar was closed.
The empowerment goals of the homosexual activists and research participants, however,
were not to be realized because of the contrasting objectives of the medical and
scientific community.
THE MEDICALIZATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY
By the 1930s, it was a well-established assumption in medical and scientific circles that
homosexuality was pathological. 87 As a result of the new openness about sexuality in
the post-World War I era, as well as the increasing visibility of homosexual
communities, there was increasing interest about homosexuality in the popular and
medicoscientific literature. 88 The opportunity of collecting data on a large sample of
self-identified homosexuals provided Dickinson and his committee colleagues with an
unusual chance to investigate a phenomenon that attracted much social and scientific
interest. In contrast to previous research that was limited to clinical cases or surveys in
the general popu-
____________________
86
See Chauncey, Gay New York, p. 339. As Chauncey points out, the bar made
selective use of Henry's findings. While Henry indicated that not all male
homosexuals were effeminate, he nevertheless argued that there was a strong
association between homosexuality and effeminacy in men. No mention of this legal
case is included in any of the existing Sex Variants Committee papers. Thus, it is not
clear whether any of the committee members were aware of the use made of the
research findings.
87
For histories of the medicalization of homosexuality, see Peter Conrad and Joseph W.
Schneider , Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness (St. Louis, 1980
), pp. 172-214; David E Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality (Chicago,
1988 ), pp. 397-433.
88
For a discussion of the changing sexual norms during the interwar period of the

17. 1920s and 1930s and their impact on medicoscientific investigation, see John
D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman , Intimate Matters. A History of Sexuality in
America (New York, 1988 ), pp. 171-235. With respect to the new focus on
homosexuality in the popular literature, see Faderman (n. 7 above), pp. 62-92.
-451-
lation, it was now possible to undertake a more definitive investigation of
homosexuality based on a sample with a relatively long-standing history of homosexual
experience.
Committee chairman Eugen Kahn drew attention to the social significance of the
committee's research, declaring, "The Committee has the impression that the interest in
research in the field of sex has broadened in the last few years and that the public
welfare will be served by publication of the results of this research. Medical,
psychological and sociological studies of sex are receiving some mention in the daily
press. The public begins to realize that punitive measures alone in dealing with cases of
'sex crime' are inadequate and that the sex offender must be studied if progress in the
prevention as well as in the treatment of sexual maladjustment is to be achieved." 89
Kahn was referring to more than the new openness about sexuality. His comments about
"sex crimes" reflected the growing concern, which began in the mid-1930s, about how
to deal with the rise of such crimes. 90
The primary objective of the Sex Variants Committee was to further the cause of
establishing homosexuality as a medical and social problem, thereby expanding the
influence of medical and scientific authorities. General medical practitioners were the
audience especially targeted for the Sex Variants monograph because, once they were
educated about sexual pathology, they would be able to detect signs of such
maladjustment in their patients. 91 Committee members argued that it was especially
important for the physician to be cognizant of homosexuality since recent surveys
revealed a higher incidence of homosexual experience than previously thought.
Dickinson, for example, in referring to Katherine Bemont Davis's survey of twelve
hundred unmarried women, stated that "Half of them had experienced intense emotional
relations with other women, and over 300, a quarter of the total number, reported
physical activities recognized as sexual." 92 Henry was even more inclusive, declaring
that "Few persons escape an overt homosexual experience at some pe-
____________________
89
Kahn (n. 21 above), p. vii.
90
The sex crime panic focused on male homosexuals who were depicted as sexual
predators who committed violent sex attacks and recruited innocent victims to their
lifestyle. As a consequence, several states passed "sexual psychopath laws." See
Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual
Psychopath, 1920-1960," Journal of American History 74 ( 1987 ): 83-106.
91
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), l:ix-x.
92
Dickinson, "The Gynecology of Homosexuality" (n. 16 above), p. 1085; italics in
original. For the Davis survey see Katherine Bemont Davis, Factors in the Sex Life
of TwentyTwo Hundred Women (New York, 1929 ).
-452-

18. riod in life and desires are universal. . . . Homosexuality is widespread and involves all
classes of society." 93
Henry and Dickinson thus pointed to the strategic role the physician could play in
monitoring any suspicious signs of homosexuality. All patients were potentially
vulnerable to sexual deviation. Homosexuality was not a distinct disease but, rather, a
problem of social adjustment or, as Henry phrased it, a failure of "adaptability to social
laws and customs." 94 In particular, homosexuals were a threat to the maintenance of
"heterosexual adjustment" because of their inability to assume the familial
responsibilities of child rearing and their generalized "hostility to the family situation."
95
While the general practitioner might contribute to initial surveillance, specialists had the
expertise to classify, treat, and prevent sexual pathology. Dickinson, for example,
pointed to the role of the gynecologist in diagnosing homosexuality in women, by
looking for signs, such as clitoris erectility and the large size of the prepuce and labia
minora. 96 Henry's role as primary investigator and author provided a particular boost for
psychiatry as the most central specialty concerned with sexual deviation. He asserted,
"Society must protect itself by classifying sex variants," stressing that such a task could
be carried out most effectively by psychiatrists who specialized in sexual pathology. 97
It was in the area of prevention that medical and scientific specialists could have the
greatest impact. Henry had concluded that early environmental influences set the pattern
for sexual development. The most significant of these influences was the gender role
behavior of parents. Henry pointed to the need for parents to adopt and maintain
conventional standards of gender behavior. As he declared, "Under ideal circumstances
the father should be an understanding, tolerant but virile and decisive male. The mother
should have the gentleness, patience and passivity usually associated with womanhood.
Any mixture such as an effeminate father and an aggressive, masculine mother is likely
to be disconcerting to the child and accentuate homosexual tendencies." 98 He also noted
the need for preventive measures beyond the confines of the
____________________
93
Henry, "Psychogenic Factors" (n. 1 above), pp. 904-5.
94
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:1025.
95
Ibid., p. 1023; Henry, "Psychogenic Factors," p. 906.
96
Dickinson, "The Gynecology of Homosexuality," pp. 1096-97. Dickinson argued that
such genital characteristics were indicative of the sexual experience of lesbians. See
Terry, "Lesbians" (n. 57 above), for an extended discussion of Dickinson's
conclusions.
97
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:1025.
98
Henry, "Psychogenic Factors," p. 903.
-453-
family unit. 99 Educational institutions had to assume the mandate for training children
for "adult heterosexual life." This translated into girls gaining proficiency in "domestic
activities," and boys being socialized to assume the role of family responsibility. Henry
also warned about the dangers of sexually segregated educational environments because
of their tendency to "favor a homosexual development." 100

19. The discourse in the Sex Variants monograph reflected the broad historical changes that
affected American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In
particular, this discourse was responsive to three historical developments: changes in the
function of the family, the emergence of a sexual identity, and medical and scientific
professionalization. With respect to the family, Henry articulated his concerns about the
breakdown of the family as a socializing agent by stating, "As our western civilization
grows older homosexuality appears to be increasing. A century ago in this country
children afforded the greatest security to the parents. With . . . [our] present mode of
living children are among the greatest liabilities to the parents. As a result young people
are driven more and more to find substitutes for adult heterosexual relationships." 101
What Henry was voicing was consonant with the theme, expressed by many social
scientists in the 1920s and 1930s, that as a result of urbanization and industrialization
the family no longer performed an economic function. 102 Medical and scientific experts
were thus needed to provide advice for the family that was no longer able to look after
itself. These experts stressed the need for the family to develop bonds of affection and
to provide a harmonious set of interacting roles. Medicoscientific discourse on
marriage, sex, and child rearing expanded during this interwar period. 103 Sex, in the
form of heterosexual adjustment, took on new significance because it was viewed as an
anchor of family stability. Dickinson and Henry each pointed to homosexuality as a
symptom of marital discord. According to Dickinson, "the psychoanalytical literature is
replete with examples of cases, in which frustration in marriage resulted in the adoption
of homosexual relationship[s] to attain security
____________________
100
Henry, "Psychogenic Factors," p. 902.
101
Ibid., p. 905.
102
On the discourse on family during the interwar period, see Christopher Lasch, Haven
in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged (New York, 1977 ), pp. 22-43; Paula
Fass, The Damned and the Beautiful. American Youth in the 1920s (New York,
1979 ).
103
Several members of the Sex Variants Committee were interested in marital
counseling and marital adjustment, namely, Dickinson, Kenyon, Laidlaw, and
Terman. Terman published extensively in the area, including Lewis M. Terman,
Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness (New York, 1938 ).
99
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:1026-27, and "Psychogenic Factors," p. 902.
-454-
and avoid anxiety." 104 Henry, in addition to his association of homosexuality with
inadequate parental role models, noted that homosexuality could be a consequence of
marital breakdown. In the case of Mary Jones, he stated, "Having the desires of a
mature, healthy woman and with the fading chances of being satisfied by a jealous,
unfaithful husband it is not surprising that she experienced a thrill from the embraces of
a passionate woman." 105
Complementing the medicoscientific discourse on marriage and family, sexuality as
expressed through heterosexual relationships was extolled as a sign of mental health. As
Henry commented, "The most harmonious unions result from affectionate relations
between two persons whose inclinations are primarily heterosexual." 106 Henry,

20. however, did acknowledge that the quality of heterosexual relations could be improved
upon by studying the success with which homosexuals maintain romantic feelings in
their relationships, as well as their ability to make "full use of erogenous areas," often
neglected by heterosexuals. 107 In these comments, Henry was reflecting the binary
distinction of sexual identity based on the direction of one's sexual interest. By the
1930s, the medical and scientific literature had shifted from viewing homosexuality as
gender inversion to viewing it as sexual object choice. 108 This change was in response
to the cultural shift that began to emerge in middle-class society around the turn of the
twentieth century, that is, the development of a heterosexual identity. 109 In response to
the rising challenges from the women's movement of the time, cultural ideals of
masculinity incorporated a cult of physicality and a need to adopt a distinctive identity
in which men contrasted themselves with effeminate men or "fairies" who engaged in
same-sex relations. Exclusive heterosexuality served this purpose. Within the gay
subculture, a parallel change took place so that same-sex attraction came to be
internalized as object choice rather than as an expression of cross-gender identity.
For the members of the Sex Variants Committee, homosexuality was therefore viewed
in terms of sexual object choice and in opposition to
____________________
104
Dickinson, "The Gynecology of Homosexuality" (n. 16 above), p. 1088.
105
Henry, "Psychogenic Factors" (n. 1 above), p. 901.
106
Henry, Sex Variants (n. 1 above), 2:1027.
107
Ibid.
108
See George Chauncey, Jr., "From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: Medicine and
the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviance," in Passion and Power.
Sexuality in History, ed. Kathy Piess and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia, 1989 ),
pp. 87-117.
109
See Chauncey, Gay New York (n. 7 above), pp. 111-27; Jonathan Ned Katz, The
Invention of Heterosexuality (New York, 1995 ), pp. 83-112. For a discussion of
changing gender roles, see Peter G. Filene, Him/Her/Self: Sex Roles in Modern
America, 2d ed. (Baltimore, 1986 ); E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood:
Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era (New York,
1993 ).
-455-
heterosexuality. Gender identity was appropriated as a sign of sexual identity because as
Henry had concluded, cross-gendered identification among family members "is most
likely to result in sex variants among the succeeding generations. . . . [These children]
grow up with a distorted conception of and impaired emotional adaptability to
masculinity and femininity." 110 Reflective of the persistent cultural anxiety about
masculinity, Henry declared, "The male child appears to be more vulnerable to
distortion in psychosexual development than the female." 111 He noted, however, that it
was sexual object rather than sexual role that was associated with homosexuality
because homosexuals could not be consistently classified as active (the male role) or
passive (the female role). 112
The expansion of medicine and the social sciences into the realm of sexuality reflected
the intrinsic professional changes taking place in these disciplines. Psychiatry, in

21. particular, was beginning to move beyond its identity as an institution-based specialty
concerned with mental illness as a somatic disease. 113 Infused by the influence of the
mental hygiene movement and psychoanalysis, psychodynamic psychiatry was gaining
influence. In the psychodynamic school, it was assumed that there was a continuum of
normal/abnormal behavior. This implied the need for outpatient psychiatric intervention
and early treatment. While most psychiatrists continued to work in mental hospitals,
there were increasing numbers involved with child guidance clinics, private practice,
and the criminal justice system. Those in the vanguard of psychiatric reform, such as
Meyer and others associated with the mental hygiene movement, advocated a shift from
institution to community in order to enhance the legitimacy and prestige of psychiatry.
Psychiatry's claim to the study and treatment of homosexuality, along with allied
medical and scientific specialties, was consistent with the new community orientation of
the field. 114
The expansion of psychiatry into the realm of sexual pathology meant that it was
necessary to challenge the view that homosexuality was a criminal offense. Thus, Henry
stressed the need to rescue homosexuality from the control of the legal system, arguing
that "the treatment of the sex variant should be a medical and social problem . . .
[whereas] the segregation of the sex variant in a penal institution is futile and
undesirable." 115 Not only was it inappropriate to treat the homosexual as a crim-
____________________
110
Henry, Sex Variants, 2:1024.
111
Ibid., p. 1026.
112
Ibid., p. 1034.
113
Walter Bromberg, Psychiatry between the Wars, 1918-1945 (Westport, CT, 1982 );
and Grob (n. 30 above).
114
In the 1930s, American psychoanalysts were also becoming increasingly interested in
the treatment of homosexuality. See Kenneth Lewes, The Psychoanalytic Theory of
Male Homosexuality (New York, 1988 ), pp. 95-121.
115
Henry, Sex Variants, l:xii-xiii.
-456-
inal but, according to Henry, viewing homosexuality as a medical problem would
protect the parents, wives, and children of sex variants from the stigma of public
scandal. 116 The medical profession had not only the expertise to deal with
homosexuality but also the humane approach.
CONCLUSION
The sex variants study represents a significant milestone in the appropriation of
homosexuality as an object of medical and scientific inquiry. Following initiatives from
the homophile movement in Germany and England, it is the first American investigation
in which homophile activists and research participants attempted to engage in a
collaborative relationship with medical/scientific investigators.
For the most part, however, this collaborative relationship was doomed from the start
because the homosexual and scientific communities were working at cross purposes.
While both groups shared in the cause for decriminalizing homosexuality, their overall

22. objectives conflicted. The homophile activists/participants hoped for an opportunity to
have their voices heard by entering into a dialogue with medical/scientific investigators.
Such an authorial relationship would provide a rare opportunity to break through the
censorship that restricted any expression of the lived experiences of homosexual men
and women. If the lives of homosexuals could be made familiar, social tolerance would
hopefully follow.
On the other hand, the medical/scientific investigators were eager to gain full authority
over the study and management of homosexuality as a means of expanding their
professional interests, which were intricately tied to their role as experts of personal
adjustment and social efficiency. This professional status in turn legitimized medical
and scientific specialists to function as agents of social control, and the control of sexual
deviance was an integral component of the mental hygiene ideology that pervaded the
medical and social scientific establishment during the Progressive and interwar eras.
The ideal society was equated with the adjustment of individuals to the established
social order. Moreover, defining sexual deviance as a medical and social problem
attested to the belief that such deviancy could be controlled through therapeutic and
preventive practices.
In the Sex Variants monograph, the original text of Jan Gay disappeared and the textual
contributions of the homosexual participants were marginalized by the overriding
medical discourse of Henry and his investigative team. In a treatment of the dialectics of
power contained in
____________________
116
Ibid., p. xv.
-457-
discursive practices, Jill Morawski and Robert Steele contrast texts of power and
empowerment. 117 The medical discourse of the Sex Variants volumes is an example of a
text of power in that it privileges the position of experts by diminishing the power of
their subjects. Henry's thirdperson narrative valorizes his authorial authority by
denigrating and pathologizing the first-person narratives of the research participants. In
contrast, the participants' personal accounts exemplify texts of empowerment. By
speaking in their own voices, these authors sought to decrease the distance between
expert and subject and hoped to establish a collaborative authorial relationship. In the
end, the power imbalance in favor of the investigators privileged their texts of power.
When the Sex Variants monograph was published, the homosexual activists and
participants were bitterly disappointed. 118 They objected to the pathologizing of their
life stories and realized that their objectives of empowerment were not to be realized
through the book's publication. These activists operated at a local level. A national
homophile movement in the United States would not emerge until the post-World War
II period. As a result of the wartime military experiences of gay men and lesbians, as
well as the increasing interest in homosexuality by psychiatry and allied specialties in
the postwar era, the fledgling homophile movement tended to become more suspicious
of mental health professionals. 119 Within a decade of the published results of the sex
variants study, however, the seeds would be sown for a collaborative effort between the
homosexual and scientific communities to depathologize homosexuality. Alfred

23. Kinsey's volumes on sexual behavior and Evelyn Hooker's psychological study of male
homosexuality served as catalysts for the homophile movement's struggle to
depathologize homosexuality. 120
____________________
117
Jill G. Morawski and Robert S. Steele, "The One or the Other? Textual Analysis of
Masculine and Feminist Empowerment," Theory and Psychology 1 ( 1991 ): 107-31.
118
Painter, Male Homosexuals (n. 39 above); Gershon Legman to Alfred C. Kinsey,
November 3, 1942, and Alfred C. Kinsey to Jan Gay, January 22, 1943, Kinsey
Institute Library.
119
Allan Bérubé, Coming Out under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in
World War Two (New York, 1990 ), pp. 149-74; Ronald Bayer, Homosexuality and
American Psychiatry (Princeton, NJ, 1981 ), pp. 67-100.
120
Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the
Human Male (Philadelphia, 1948 ); Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, Clyde E.
Martin , and Paul H. Gebhard, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia,
1953 ); Evelyn Hooker, "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual," Journal
of Projective Techniques 21 ( 1957 ): 18-31.
-458-
discursive practices, Jill Morawski and Robert Steele contrast texts of power and
empowerment. 117 The medical discourse of the Sex Variants volumes is an example of a
text of power in that it privileges the position of experts by diminishing the power of
their subjects. Henry's thirdperson narrative valorizes his authorial authority by
denigrating and pathologizing the first-person narratives of the research participants. In
contrast, the participants' personal accounts exemplify texts of empowerment. By
speaking in their own voices, these authors sought to decrease the distance between
expert and subject and hoped to establish a collaborative authorial relationship. In the
end, the power imbalance in favor of the investigators privileged their texts of power.
When the Sex Variants monograph was published, the homosexual activists and
participants were bitterly disappointed. 118 They objected to the pathologizing of their
life stories and realized that their objectives of empowerment were not to be realized
through the book's publication. These activists operated at a local level. A national
homophile movement in the United States would not emerge until the post-World War
II period. As a result of the wartime military experiences of gay men and lesbians, as
well as the increasing interest in homosexuality by psychiatry and allied specialties in
the postwar era, the fledgling homophile movement tended to become more suspicious
of mental health professionals. 119 Within a decade of the published results of the sex
variants study, however, the seeds would be sown for a collaborative effort between the
homosexual and scientific communities to depathologize homosexuality. Alfred
Kinsey's volumes on sexual behavior and Evelyn Hooker's psychological study of male
homosexuality served as catalysts for the homophile movement's struggle to
depathologize homosexuality. 120
____________________
117
Jill G. Morawski and Robert S. Steele, "The One or the Other? Textual Analysis of
Masculine and Feminist Empowerment," Theory and Psychology 1 ( 1991 ): 107-31.
118
Painter, Male Homosexuals (n. 39 above); Gershon Legman to Alfred C. Kinsey,

24. November 3, 1942, and Alfred C. Kinsey to Jan Gay, January 22, 1943, Kinsey
Institute Library.
119
Allan Bérubé, Coming Out under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in
World War Two (New York, 1990 ), pp. 149-74; Ronald Bayer, Homosexuality and
American Psychiatry (Princeton, NJ, 1981 ), pp. 67-100.
120
Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin, Sexual Behavior in the
Human Male (Philadelphia, 1948 ); Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, Clyde E.
Martin , and Paul H. Gebhard, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia,
1953 ); Evelyn Hooker, "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual," Journal
of Projective Techniques 21 ( 1957 ): 18-31.
-458-