The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach

by Donald Webster Cory

From the first-edition dust jacket (1951):

Here, for the first time, in the language of the layman, is the story of homosexuality, as seen, felt, experienced, and told by a homosexual. Every aspect of this little-understood life is related and evaluated from a subjective viewpoint in a book that is packed with hitherto undisclosed information and that treats the subject frankly, honestly, and with keen analytical understanding.

What does it mean to be a homosexual in present-day America? What are the problems encountered, the adjustments attempted, the humiliations silently accepted? Does the homosexual look to marriage as the answer to his problems, or to psychoanalytic cure, or to sublimation of his desires? Does he believe that there is a place for homosexuality in the scheme of things, that it can make a contribution to a healthy society? These are a few of the challenging questions that are answered for the first time by a homosexual.

In this book the author demonstrates that remarkable similarity between the problems facing the homosexual and those facing national and ethnic minorities in society; he subjects the phenomenon of social hostility to unrelenting analysis; he replies to the charge that sexual inversion is unnatural. The psychological origins of an anomalous condition are considered and its incidence is discussed. The language of homosexual circles is described, and the gay bars and drags are portrayed.

The problem of promiscuity and instability and its counterpart, the search for love, are frankly discussed. Laws covering homosexual practices, civil liberties and discrimination — all come within the scope of this work. The author ends with a word to parents and a heart-to-heart talk with homosexuals like himself for whom he sees a full and satisfactory life ahead.

In three valuable appendixes the author discloses (with consent) official government documents dealing with the attitude of the Veterans Administration on this question; presents excerpts from the penal codes of the forty-eight states; and gives a remarkable list of approximately two hundred works (novels, dramas, poetry) on the subject.

It is the author's contention that the psychiatrists and penologists meet only a few unhappy and particularly maladjusted homosexuals and that the average person recognizes only the "obvious" types. Only a homosexual could know the many "normal" inverts — and could describe their lives, adjustments, compensations, and aspirations.

Except for the statistical disclosures in the Kinsey report, this is easily the most important and comprehensive book on the subject that America has produced. It will be of great interest not only to all homosexuals, but to their families, friends, employers, and to all people interested in this widespread social and psychological phenomenon. But, more than that, this book is likely to take its place with the classics of sexual literature, on a shelf side by side with the contributions of Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, Freud, and Kinsey.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer

326 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Donald Webster Cory is the pen name of Edward Sagarin, a professor of criminology and sociology at the City University of New York and author in 1951 of a groundbreaking study of homosexuality in the United States.

Reviews

[Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a product of it's time--and worth a read, seeing as it is the first book to advocate for LGBT equality. Although the author produces some useful arguments about our identity and its impact on our lives within mainstream society, some of the evidence is anecdotal (and amusing, in a sad way, like how gays far outnumber lesbians 4 to one, based on his experience). Still, he wrestles with the stigma and several stereotypes of the era. Useful appendices on anti-gay laws as well as novels "about" us.

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book secretly as a boy. I wish I could find a copy of this again.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

PERHAPS THE FIRST "MODERN" BOOK OF THE LGBT MOVEMENT

He wrote in the Preface to this 1951 book, "This book is the result of a quarter of a century of participation in American life as a homosexual... It is my belief that the observations and viewpoints of the homosexual are as essential as those of the psychiatrist, the jurist, or the churchman in arriving at any conclusion on homosexuality. The psychiatrist can never hope to meet a cross section of homosexuals, for his patients are only the frustrated and the maladjusted ...

"The subjective approach of this book is intended... to permit the expression of the opinion as seen from within that group... This book is, in a sense, a spiritual autobiography... At the age of twenty-five, after determining that I was capable of consummating a marriage, I was wedded to a girl whom I had known since childhood... I was not long in learning that marriage did not reduce the urge for gratification with men...Today, after many years of a successful marriage, with a happy home and with children, and with a firm bond of friendship that has developed with a man who has been an inspiring person in my life, I sit down to relate what it means to be a homosexual... I hope that my book will enlighten, that it will bring understanding on the part of parents, brothers and sisters, friends and teachers." (Pg. 10-13)

He states early on, "I find that fundamental to all answers is an understanding that the dominant factor in my life, towering in importance above all others, is a consciousness that I am different. In one all-important respect, I am unlike the great mass of people always around me, and the knowledge of this fact is with me at all times." (Pg. 18)

He asks, "What are these predisposing influences? In all my discussions with homosexuals... one observation has been almost universal, and that is the lack of a well-balanced home, where the mother and father displayed affection for each other and for the child. Broken homes, divorces, early deaths, frigid parents, unequal love---one pattern or another can be found in almost every instance." (Pg. 72)

He states, "The causes of homosexualism seem to be complex, and often several factors influence the same individual. One cause may aggravate another... I nevertheless feel that there are some patterns... Unbalanced love of a boy for his mother... Effort of a boy to replace his father because of the latter's absence, death or inadequacy... Identification of a boy with his mother... Predisposition to effeminacy or to physical weakness... Introduction to successful homosexual pursuits during adolescent years." (Pg. 77-78)

He suggests, "It is my opinion that the failure to effect a transformation of the homosexual into the heterosexual is readily explicable. The task of the therapist is to relieve repressions, not to sponsor them. As the maladjusted homosexual finds that his feelings of guilt are diminished... he will find that he is enjoying his homosexual relations, and in fact being a homosexual, more than before." (Pg. 176)

He concludes, "The homosexual, first and foremost, wants recognition of the fact that he is doing no one any harm." (Pg. 208) He adds, "Because of the size of the homosexual minority, and because of the non-hereditary and involuntary nature of the drive which characterizes this group, no one in the world is exempt from the very strong possibility that homosexuality already exists in one's most immediate family or in the family or one's closest friends." (Pg. 219)

This is a fascinating, historically-important, and often surprising (but remember that it's more than seventy years old) book, that is "must reading" for anyone interested in the history of homosexuality in our society.