Box Turtle Bulletin

The Daily Agenda for Sunday, September 18

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Visibility at the Exodus Regional Ex-Gay Conference: Auburn, NH. As Exodus International continues their regional ex-gay conference at the First Assembly of God of Auburn, just outside of Manchester, New Hampshire today (see yesterday’s Daily Agenda for details), a group of LGBT advocates will be there this morning to greet arrivals. The visibility action begins at 8:00 a.m. and continues until 11:00.

AIDS Walks Today: Birmingham, AL; Cranbrook, BC; Detroit, MI; Edmunton, AB; Hazelton, BC; Kamloops, BC; Rochester, NY; Saskatoon, SK and Vancouver, BC.

Pride Celebrations Today: Dallas, TX; Roanoke, VA; Sapporo, Japan and Stratford, ON.

Also This Weekend: North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Shreveport, LA.

An early advertisement for Donald Webster Cory's "The Homosexual In America." (Click to enlarge.)

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Donald Webster Cory/Edward Sagarin: 1913. Writing under the pseudonym Donald Webster Cory, Sagarin published his groundbreaking book, The Homosexual In America: A Subjective Approach, in 1951 which would go on to become one of the most influential books in the early history of the gay rights movement. In that seminal book, he wrote of the struggles that gay people faced and argued forcefully for the elimination of anti-sodomy laws which were then on the books in every state of the nation. The book was the first major publication to provide an exhaustive overview of gay life which was largely underground and out of sight of ordinary Americans. He discussed gay bars, drag queens, relationships, marriages as convenience and as cover, and even provided a lexicon of gay slang.

But what really pushed the boundaries of publishing is his unequivocal call for the full integration of gay people in public life. He argued that this integration would be mutually beneficial specifically because of the harassment gay people experienced from society. “I am convinced,” he wrote, “and will presently attempt to demonstrate, that there is a permanent place in the scheme of things for he homosexual — a place that transcends the reaction to hostility and that will continue to contribute to social betterment after social acceptance.” He was also an early proponent of what we today would call multiculturalism, saying that the diversity of minorities — ethnic, religious, racial and sexual minorities — strengthens and enriches a democratic society. “[H]omosexuality — fortunately but unwittingly — must inevitably place a progressive role in the scheme of things,” he argued. “It will broaden the base for freedom of thought and communication, will be a banner-bearer in the struggle for liberalization of our sexual conventions, and will be  a pillar of strength in the defense of our threatened democracy.”

Sagarin would continue writing as Donald Webster Cory for the pioneering homophile magazine ONE, and he established the Cory Book Service, a sort of a book-of-the-month club specializing in what was them very difficult to find gay-themed books.

Having firmly established himself as a forceful proponent of what would later be called gay liberation, it is startling to see how conservative Sagarin would end up becoming as time went on. Early hints of that conservatism can be found in The Homosexual In America, where he accepted without question the consensus in the psychological world that homosexuality came about as a result of a disturbed home life. But as the decade wore on and a few psychologists began to question the assumption that gay people were emotionally disturbed, Sagarin rejected those arguments. He wasn’t alone in the gay community for doing this; ONE, as radical and strident as it was, nevertheless often published a number of articles which accepted the prevailing assumptions. But by 1963, when he co-authored The Homosexual and His Society with John LeRoy, that assumption was beginning to look dated. He still argued forcefully for the full acceptance of gay people in society — including among psychologist, saying that the first duty of psychologists was not to “cure” gay people but to “eliminate the personal distress and anxieties that arise as a result of social hostility.” But he also argued against those in the homophile movement who rejected the idea that gay people were emotionally disturbed, and went so far as to argue that there was no such thing as a “well-adjusted homosexual.”

Unsurprisingly, he lost when, as Donald Webster Cory, he ran for president of the Mattachine Society in 1965. That moment proved to be a decisive break for Sagarin who, along with the rest of the conservative guard, felt the stinging rejection by younger, less apologetic gay activists. From that point on, Sagarin retreated from the homophile movement and when he graduated from New York University’s sociology program in 1966 (as Edward Sagarin), his dissertation was titled “Structure and Ideology in an Association of Deviants” — that association being the Mattachine Society. From that point on, Sagarin remained disengaged from the homophile movement, while his identity as Donald Webster Cory remained a closely guarded secret. But his identity became known in 1974, when Sagarin attended the American Sociological Society convention and spoke on a panel titled, “Theoretical Perspectives on Homosexuality” and criticized the direction of the gay rights movement. In response, Laud Humphreys, who founded the Sociologists’ Gay Caucus later that same year, outed Sagarin by calling him “Mr. Cory” several times as feigned “slips” of the tongue. Sagarin reportedly left the panel quietly in tears, and from that point on he withdrew from discussing homosexuality. He died of a heart attack on June 10, 1986.

Many have described Sagarin as a modern-day Jekyle and Hyde figure. As Donald Webster Cory, he remains a pioneer in the early gay rights movement.. The year in which The Homosexual In America appeared, American was in the grip of both the Red Scare and the Pink Scare, both stoked by Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy, and Cory’s treatise rang out as both a radical declaration for equality and a prescient observation of gay society. The Homosexual In America remains today one of the most important books in the gay rights canon. But as Edward Sagarin, he would become an intractable foe of the very movement he helped to inspire.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?