Behind the Masks - Introduction
Preface
Finney Chapel circa 1951. Courtesy of Robert Fuller.
At the end of their first semester in 1960, a small group of Oberlin freshmen signed a remarkable letter to the Oberlin Review in protest of the mandatory sex education seminars they had attended. In the strident, irreverent style that would come to characterize campus rhetoric in the late 1960s, they objected to their instructors’ “unquestioning conformity, Victorian morals,” and “dusty pronouncements of the dangers of Communist infiltration if our sex codes are relaxed.”
The students, at least a few of whom were “red diaper babies,” or children of Communist Party members or other leftists[1], also offered what was for the time a radical defense of homosexuality. It was the “narrow minded attitude” expressed by their instructors—“that [homosexuals] ought to be pitied, rather than looked down upon”—that “in fact, makes homosexuality the problem that it is,” they argued. “Only if homosexuality is accepted as a natural social phenomenon…can we approach the problem objectively, if we agree that this is a ‘problem’ after all.”[2]
Two weeks later, professor of English W. Arthur Turner responded incredulously to the letter, which he told the students was so “offensive” that it “ought to make your parents ashamed of you.” “For me, and many others who have been at Oberlin since you were in rompers, and longer,” he wrote, “your letter seems…rude and silly.” Moreover, “in terms of the Christian morality upon which this country—and this college—were founded, the implications of your letter are simply immoral.”[3]
This particular debate appears to have ended with Turner’s letter, but the exchange stands at a watershed in Oberlin College’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history—looking back at the college’s socially conservative roots, but a harbinger of the movements for sexual freedom that were to come in the 1960s and early 1970s. The letters also illustrate the complex mixture of paternalism, political liberalism, student radicalism, and conservative Christian morality that shaped LGBT people’s experiences of Oberlin, to varying degrees, during the time period this narrative addresses: the 1920s to the early 1970s.
This set of values is consistent with Oberlin’s Christian activist background: founded in 1833 as an evangelical Christian settlement in the West, the college was also a pioneer in coeducation, one of the first in the U.S. to admit students regardless of race, and a key player in the national abolitionist, temperance, and prohibition movements. In more recent years, some have claimed that Oberlin’s early “progressive” commitments have been extended to LGBT issues and individuals. Out magazine, after noting the college’s “legendary” early political history, named Oberlin “the best small school in the country for gays” in 2004,[4] and in 1993, Newsweek similarly dubbed the college a “gay mecca.”[5]
Oberlin campus map from
the 1951 admissions catalogue.
Courtesy of Robert Fuller.
Enlarge this photo.
This was not true of Oberlin during the 1920s to 1970s. While the college would gradually shed its Christian focus, beginning as early as the late 1800s, its view of sexual morality was constrained by this heritage well into the 1960s, if not beyond. As at other schools, Oberlin administrators and faculty acted in loco parentis (literally “in place of parents”) to shape students’ moral and social development, enforcing a host of restrictive social rules, mandatory religious instruction and sex education programs, sex segregated campus residential zones, and choreographed heterosexual interactions. As the sex seminar exchange suggests, the Oberlin students we now group under the “LGBT” umbrella were most often considered by their academic parents to be objects of pity, immoral, weak-minded, and/or mentally ill. At Oberlin and elsewhere, they were subject to punishment, expulsion, loss of status, and even arrest.
Despite this, LGBT students and faculty created rich campus worlds and social networks. Oberlin was neither “akin to a large closet” before the 1969 Stonewall riots, as the otherwise informative Oberlin LGBT oral history collection Into the Pink asserts—nor were all LGBT Oberlinians “coping with confusion, aloneness, or …finding a cure.”[6]
A bird’s eye view of Oberlin drawn in 1833.
Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives.
Enlarge this photo.
While a profound sense of stigmatized “difference” weighed heavily on many minds, not all LGBT Oberlinians internalized feelings of immorality, mental illness, or deviancy. Few were as bold or “political” as the freshmen signers of the sex seminar letter, but many students and faculty accepted their sexual desires or gender difference, and some even recast their stigmatized “difference” as a sign of a privileged or elite relationship to style and talent. And even though the consequences of campus exposure were serious, few reported being completely isolated or “closeted” at Oberlin. Many instead spoke of “wearing a mask” that could be strategically removed in gay circles, or of creating “secret societies” or “clubs.” I found that vibrant gay male campus social networks have flourished as long ago as the 1930s, sometimes flamboyantly so, but more often just below the surface of their fellow Oberlinians’ recognition. [Evidence about bisexual women and lesbians is less conclusive, as discussed in the “Methodology, Identity, and Language” section.]
This narrative seeks to unearth the worlds hidden “behind the masks” of LGBT Oberlin students and faculty. It also offers a view of Oberlin’s history through a “queer” lens, touching on the LGBT-related significance of campus civil rights activism, the influx of World War II veterans, the Conservatory of Music, the campus feminist movement, and the decades-long debate regarding social rules and the in loco parentis campus community model. As such, this narrative is influenced by the effort to reclaim stories of pre-Stonewall LGBT lives and debunk what historian George Chauncey has called the myths of “isolation, invisibility, and internalization.”[7]
[…] 30 years later to the year Newsweek Magazine named Oberlin College the “mecca for LGBT students in small colleges”. And I started it. Probably a quarter of the students at Oberlin are gay. Coming out was really a very radical thing to do and my experience at Oberlin was a very solitary because I was the only person out on campus so I was considered an exotic bird. People flocked to me because they thought I was so interesting or avoided me because they thought I was so evil. It wasn’t until I got to Stonewall Riots that I discovered community. Actually they weren’t riots, they were a rebellion. […]
Posted by Interview with Roger Goodman: Queer Activist and Stonewall Riot Veteran « The Burnham Daley on May 3, 2011
[…] Interview with Roger Goodman: Queer Activist and Stonewall Riot Veteran May 3, 2011 tags: Activism, Activist, Chicago, From The Ashes Risen, gay, LGBT, Monica Kelley, Queer, Roger Goodman, Stonewall, Stonewall Riots, Tribal Elder Productions by The Burnham Daley The Stonewall Riots are legendary within the queer community. Stonewall was the event that kick-started the gay rights movement. The Stonewall Riots were a series of riots that began late on June 28, 1969 into the morning of June 29. The night started like any other, inside a dinky bar called The Stonewall Inn in New York City. A group of mostly homosexual men and drag queens were hanging out in the bar when police legally raided the bar (it was illegal to be homosexual). During raids, if one was expected to be homosexual, they would be arrested and their names would be published in the newspaper, more often than not they would be fired from their jobs the next day.Raids as such were not uncommon in the 1950s and 60s. What made this raid famous was that the bar patrons fought back against police. Despite the violence, the next night, even more people gathered at the Stonewall Inn to show the police they were through hiding. Within 6 months the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance were both formed, and on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots the first gay pride parade in America was held in New York City. Pride parades are now held all across the nation, including Chicago.Roger Goodman was at Stonewall that night and his memories are vivid. However his story does not begin and end at Stonewall. Political activism takes many forms, the Stonewall Riots were certainly one type of political activism. Roger Goodman is a man who has worn many hats.Goodman is much more than a Stonewall Riot survivor, he is and has been an activist with the queer community for over 40 years. Although Roger has worked for queer rights and social justice around the country, including New York City and Cambridge Massachusetts, much of his activism has taken place locally in Chicago. I sat down with Roger Goodman at his home for an interview.Burnham Daley: It is my understanding that you were out of the closet in college, did you consider that a political statement at the time?Roger Goodman: Yes I did consider it a political statement to come out in 1965. It was a revolutionary thing to do because no one else was out. I decided if I didn’t come out I would probably commit suicide so i had to come out because living in a closet is a terrible thing. It is very dark in closets and very scary. I had a wonderful psychotherapist at Oberlin college. He told me his job was not to make me straight, his job was to make me love myself and to be the best gay man I could possibly be. He was wonderful He was involved with the research of Evelyn Hooker, who was the woman who got homosexuality taken out of the DSM-III as a mental illness. John believed that being gay was simply on a continuum of sexual orientation, not some kind of aberration and that was wonderful for me to hear. So I came out like gang busters. The door flew open and Roger flew out. I was the first gay man to come out publicly at Oberlin College in 1965. My best friend, Bart, when he found out I was going to come out shook me by the shoulder and said “You can’t do this, do you know what this place will be like in 30 years if you come out?” I said “No” He said “It is going to be a radical change, you can’t do this.”30 years later to the year Newsweek Magazine named Oberlin College the “mecca for LGBT students in small colleges”. And I started it. Probably a quarter of the students at Oberlin are gay. Coming out was really a very radical thing to do and my experience at Oberlin was a very solitary because I was the only person out on campus so I was considered an exotic bird. People flocked to me because they thought I was so interesting or avoided me because they thought I was so evil. It wasn’t until I got to Stonewall Riots that I discovered community. Actually they weren’t riots, they were a rebellion. […]
Posted by Interview with Roger Goodman: Queer Activist and Stonewall Riot Veteran « The Burnham Daley on May 3, 2011
[…] Interview with Roger Goodman: Queer Activist and Stonewall Riot Veteran May 3, 2011 tags: Activism, Activist, Chicago, From The Ashes Risen, gay, LGBT, Monica Kelley, Queer, Roger Goodman, Stonewall, Stonewall Riots, Tribal Elder Productions by The Burnham Daley The Stonewall Riots are legendary within the queer community. Stonewall was the event that kick-started the gay rights movement. The Stonewall Riots were a series of riots that began late on June 28, 1969 into the morning of June 29. The night started like any other, inside a dinky bar called The Stonewall Inn in New York City. A group of mostly homosexual men and drag queens were hanging out in the bar when police legally raided the bar (it was illegal to be homosexual). During raids, if one was expected to be homosexual, they would be arrested and their names would be published in the newspaper, more often than not they would be fired from their jobs the next day.Raids as such were not uncommon in the 1950s and 60s. What made this raid famous was that the bar patrons fought back against police. Despite the violence, the next night, even more people gathered at the Stonewall Inn to show the police they were through hiding. Within 6 months the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance were both formed, and on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots the first gay pride parade in America was held in New York City. Pride parades are now held all across the nation, including Chicago.Roger Goodman was at Stonewall that night and his memories are vivid. However his story does not begin and end at Stonewall. Political activism takes many forms, the Stonewall Riots were certainly one type of political activism. Roger Goodman is a man who has worn many hats.Goodman is much more than a Stonewall Riot survivor, he is and has been an activist with the queer community for over 40 years. Although Roger has worked for queer rights and social justice around the country, including New York City and Cambridge Massachusetts, much of his activism has taken place locally in Chicago. I sat down with Roger Goodman at his home for an interview. Burnham Daley: It is my understanding that you were out of the closet in college, did you consider that a political statement at the time? Roger Goodman: Yes I did consider it a political statement to come out in 1965. It was a revolutionary thing to do because no one else was out. I decided if I didn’t come out I would probably commit suicide so I had to come out because living in a closet is a terrible thing. It is very dark in closets and very scary. I had a wonderful psychotherapist at Oberlin College. He told me his job was not to make me straight, his job was to make me love myself and to be the best gay man I could possibly be. He was wonderful He was involved with the research of Evelyn Hooker, who was the woman who got homosexuality taken out of the DSM-III as a mental illness. John believed that being gay was simply on a continuum of sexual orientation, not some kind of aberration and that was wonderful for me to hear. So I came out like gang busters. The door flew open and Roger flew out. I was the first gay man to come out publicly at Oberlin College in 1965. My best friend, Bart, when he found out I was going to come out shook me by the shoulder and said “You can’t do this, do you know what this place will be like in 30 years if you come out?” I said “No” He said “It is going to be a radical change, you can’t do this.”30 years later to the year Newsweek Magazine named Oberlin College the “mecca for LGBT students in small colleges”. And I started it. Probably a quarter of the students at Oberlin are gay. Coming out was really a very radical thing to do and my experience at Oberlin was a very solitary because I was the only person out on campus so I was considered an exotic bird. People flocked to me because they thought I was so interesting or avoided me because they thought I was so evil. It wasn’t until I got to Stonewall Riots that I discovered community. Actually they weren’t riots, they were a rebellion. […]
Posted by Interview with Roger Goodman: Queer Activist and Stonewall Riot Veteran « The Burnham Daley on May 7, 2011