The Tortured Sex

Foreword

As recently as twenty years ago, the subject of homosexuality was strictly taboo throughout most of America. Its discussion, on the few occasions when there was discussion, was restricted largely to men-only bull sessions at poolrooms, bars and military barracks. If police trapped a pair of men in a homosexual act, the culprits were booked on mysteriously-inexplicit “crime against nature” charges; newspaper and magazines then reported, even less explicitly, a “morals offense.” Other communications media, meanwhile—radio, television, motion pic- tures—operated as though homosexuality did not even exist.

The past several years have seen the collapse of many of these taboos. In some cases, it appears that the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. The New York Times not long ago gave front page attention to a story headlined: GROWTH OF OVERT HOMOSEXUALITY IN CITY PROVOKES WIDE CONCERN. A subsequent issue of the Times Sunday magazine featured an article by psychiatrist Irving Bieber advising parents how to detect “the signs of impending danger in the development of (homosexuality among) children.” The Miami Herald, not to be outdone, devoted an eightcolumn spread to THE LIFE OF A HOMOSEXUAL: IT’S SAD, NOT GAY—featuring photos of, among other things, a pair of transvestites cavorting in “full drag.” Life magazine, meanwhile, offered a multi-page photo and text layout exploring homosexual practices, procedures and pecadillos throughout the country. Before long, the exceptional publication was the one that did not have a study of homosexuality to its credit.

One of the effects of all this journalistic attention, it seems, was a gradual transformation of the public image of homosexuality. No more was the perpetrator of a homosexual act viewed as “shameful” and “degenerate;” instead, he was thought to be “sick” and badly in need of “help.” The best evidence of this transformation came to light when a top governmental official was revealed to have been arrested twice on criminal charges involving homosexual solicitation; as news of the arrests spread, the official and his family received expressions of sympathy from the President, himself, and from people all over the nation; there were even job offers from business firms in his home state. It is hard to imagine such a display of national benevolence during the McCarthy era a decade earlier; at that time, the unfortunate official more likely would have been vilified and condemned from all sides, then booted out of Washington without so much as a “bon voyage.”