Laud Humphreys | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Allan Humphreys (1930-10-16)October 16, 1930 |
| Died | August 23, 1988(1988-08-23) (aged 57) |
| Alma mater | Colorado College |Seabury-Western Theological Seminary |Washington University in St. Louis |
| Occupations |
|
| Employer | Southern Illinois University |State University of New York at Albany |Pitzer College |
| Notable work | Tearoom Trade (1970) |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Brian Miller (1980–1988) |
| Ecclesiastical career | |
| Religion | Christianity (Anglican) |
| Church | Episcopal Church |
| Ordained | 1955 (priest)[1] |
Robert Allan Humphreys (1930–1988), known asLaud Humphreys, was an Americansociologist andEpiscopal priest. He is noted for his research intosexual encounters between men in public bathrooms, published asTearoom Trade (1970), and for the questions that emerged from what was overwhelmingly considered unethical research methods.[2] He influenced generations of scholars who research issues related to sexuality and sexual identity.[3]
Robert Allan Humphreys was born on October 16, 1930,[4] inChickasha,Oklahoma, to Ira Denver Humphreys and Stella Bernice Humphreys.[5] "Laud" was chosen as his first name when he was baptized again upon entering theEpiscopal Church.
Humphreys graduated fromChickasha High School (Chickasha, Oklahoma) in 1948.[5] He then attendedColorado College, graduating with his BA in 1952. He attendedSeabury-Western Theological Seminary (inEvanston,Illinois), graduating with the MDiv degree in 1955. In 1965, he entered graduate school atWashington University to pursue a PhD insociology.[6] Hisdissertation adviser wasLee Rainwater. Humphreys obtained two pre-doctoral research fellowships from theNational Institute of Mental Health to fund his dissertation research. He completed his dissertation in 1968, graduating with his PhD in that year. He published the dissertation asTearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places in 1970. His book won theC. Wright Mills Award from theSociety for the Study of Social Problems in 1969.[7][6] Due to the controversy around his research methods and the topic of his research, there was a failed attempt by thechancellor of Washington University to rescind his PhD.[5][6]
After earning his MDiv, and before returning for his PhD, Humphreys was ordained as an Episcopal priest. He served in a number of parishes and advocated for theCivil Rights Movement, which put him in tension with a number of the parishes in which he served.[8]
In 1965, Humphreys returned to study for a PhD which he earned in 1968. Afterwards, Humphreys was an assistant professor of sociology atSouthern Illinois University inEdwardsville, Illinois, from 1968 to 1970. He was associate professor of sociology at the School of Criminal Justice,State University of New York in Albany from 1970 to 1972. He was associate professor of sociology atPitzer College, inClaremont,California, from 1972 to 1975; he earned full professorship atPitzer in 1975, where he worked until about 1980, when he began to focus on his psychotherapist practice.[6] However, he did not retire from Pitzer until 1986, two years before his death.[9]
Humphreys belonged to several sociological professional organizations, including theAmerican Sociological Association (ASA), the Society for the Study of Social Problems, thePacific Sociological Association, and theAcademy of Criminal Justice Sciences. He was a charter member of theInternational Academy of Sex Research.[6] During his academic career, he served on a number of editorial boards and served as chair of multiple professional society committees. He was an invited speaker at more than a dozen symposia and other events, and was a guest on four TV shows.[6]
Humphreys married Nancy Wallace, a woman from a prominent Tulsa family, in 1960.[5] The couple had two children, Claire and David.[5][10]: dedication In 1974, Humphreys came out as a gay man[11] during a discussion at a conference session at the ASA.[5] Humphreys was a co-founder of theSociologists' Gay Caucus (now the Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People in Sociology),[12] established in 1974 as a response to a presentation byEdward Sagarin that criticized homosexual sociologists as hiding in the closet.[13][5]
Humphreys separated from his wife in 1980 and began living with Brian Miller, a graduate student at theUniversity of Alberta.[5] With Miller, he co-authored articles aboutgay subcultures and victims of violenthomophobia.[5]
Humphreys died oflung cancer on August 23, 1988, aged 57.
His biography, written by John F. Galliher, Wayne H. Brekhus, and David P. Keys, was published in 2004, under the titleLaud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology.[6] The authors establish the case that Humphreys was an extremely complex person and that he was professionally marginalized in the discipline of sociology.[6] The book also heralds his contributions to the discipline of sociology, as well as his advocacy forAfrican-American civil rights,gay rights, and against war.[6]
TheUniversity of Southern California houses the Laud Humphreys Papers Collection, as part of theONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.[14]
Humphreys is best known for his publishedPhDdissertation,Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (1970), anethnographic study of anonymous male-male sexual encounters inpublic toilets (a practice known as "tea-rooming" in US gay slang and "cottaging" in British English). Humphreys asserted that the men participating in such activity came from diverse social backgrounds, had differing personal motives for seeking sexual partners in such venues, and variously self-perceived as "straight," "bisexual," or "gay." Because Humphreys was able to confirm that over 50% of his subjects identified asheterosexual men who were married to women,[2] a primary thesis ofTearoom Trade is the incongruence between the private self and the social self for many of the men engaging in this form of homosexual activity. Specifically, they put on a "breastplate of righteousness" (social andpolitical conservatism) in an effort to conceal their sexual behavior and prevent being exposed asdeviants. Humphreys tapped into a theme of incongruence between one's words and deeds that has become a primary methodological and theoretical concern in sociology throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.[15]
Humphreys' study has been criticized by sociologists and other social andbehavioral scientists on ethical grounds[2] in that he observed sexual acts by masquerading as avoyeur, "did not get his subjects’consent, tracked down names and addresses throughlicense plate numbers, and interviewed the men in their homes in disguise and under false pretenses."[16]
According toJack Nusan Porter, a sociologist who knew Humphreys and studied underHoward S. Becker atNorthwestern University from 1967 to 1971, "Humphreys was enormously influential on graduate students and younger scholars in the field of deviance, ethnography, and what we called 'participant observation'. True, today one could not do such research because there was no 'informed consent' but then again, in many cases, when doing research on deviant behavior, one will never get 'informed consent' so we miss out on a lot of important findings. He was a true pioneer and a hero to all of us in these fields."
Humphreys' research materials, including detailed diagrams and maps of tearoom activity he observed, are housed in the collections atONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
By 2004,Tearoom Trade had sold more than 300,000 copies.[17] Steven P. Schacht notes that this fact "makes it one of the best selling books ever written by a sociologist."[17]: 5 The book was also published byGerald Duckworth & Co. in British English, and in German by Ferdinand Enke Vertag. Both of these versions were published in 1974.[6]
Humphreys influenced generations of sociologists and other social and behavioral scientists in complex ways. He is often studied in research methods classes for the ethical questions that his works raised.[17] However,Earl Babbie, who writes about sociological research methods, notes that the controversy about "sociological snoopers"[18] and research ethics was likely the result of societalhomophobia and disgust with the research topic, and not due to real problems with research methods.[19]
Schacht credits Humphreys with pioneering research on impersonal sex, now a common topic of research and advocacy in the context of HIV/AIDS.[17] Tewksbury writes about the multiple studies that were inspired by Humphrey's work, calling his work a rich legacy for future sex researchers.[20] According to Brekhus, Humphrey's contribution to sociological theory, in particular to the development of the concept of identity politics, is often overlooked, but should be hailed as an important forerunner to modern queer theory.[21] Nardi also lauds Humphreys' theoretical work, especially his concept of the breastplate of righteousness. Humphreys developed this idea to explain the apparent contradiction of presumably straight, married men holding a public conservative stance against homosexuality, yet engaging in impersonal sex with men in public settings.[22]
In 2003,[citation needed] the presidential session at theSociety for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) was devoted to honoring Humphrey's pioneering work on sexuality.[17] In 2004, a special issue ofThe International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy was published that was edited by Steven P. Schacht, who participated in the SSSP session. The special issue contained ten articles analyzing his research and his multiple contributions as a social activist and scholar.[17] The authors of these articles call for sociologists and others to move beyond criticism of Humphrey's research methodologies in the tearoom study, and instead to focus on his pioneering contributions to the study of sexuality, participant-observation as method, development of sociological theory, and his work as a social activist and advocate for marginalized sexual identities.
