Oberlin College LGBT Community History Project - Behind the Masks | Behind the Masks | Behind the Masks

Behind The Masks

Preface Methodology, Identity, and Language Oral Histories Themes Acknowledgments

The Interwar Period: Shifting Boundaries

Introduction A "Pre-history:" Separate Spheres, In Loco Parentis, and Romantic Friendships (before WWI) "We Did Not Know What to Call It:" Same Sex Expression and Sexual Liberalism (1920s) Fears of Homosexuality, Sex Education, and Resistance to Social Rules (1930s) Lived Experiences of Same Sex Desire (1930s)

WWII Veterans: "A Whole Gay World Had Come Out"

Introduction George Brenner and a Gay History Circle (late 1940s) Robert Wood, the Seminary, and the “Throne Room” (late 1940s) Bars and Barns: Off-Campus “Gay Worlds” (late 1940s) The Kinsey Report, Sexual Identity, and Oberlin Tearooms (late 1940s)

Professor Fredrick Artz and the Cultural Stance of the “Queer” (b. 1894, d. 1983)

1950s/early 1960s: Homosexuals as Mentally Ill and Homosexuals as "Musical"

Introduction A “Queer” College: Political Liberalism and Social Conservatism (1950s) An Oberlin Diary (1948-1953) Homosexuals as “Musical” and Conservatory as Haven (1950s/early 1960s) Homosexuals as Mentally Ill (late 1950s/early 1960s) A Gay Theater Circle: Camp Sensibility and The Boy Friend (early 1960s)

1960s: Civil Rights, Social Rules, and the Sexual Revolution

Introduction The Civil Rights Movement and LGBT Identities (late 1950s to mid 1960s) The Challenge to In Loco Parentis, Campus Masculinity, and Administrative Anxiety (1960-1970) Classroom Interventions Off-Campus Gay Worlds "Oh Needs-a!:" Camp and "Drag" Names in the Conservatory (mid 1960s/early 1970s) Roger Goodman and John Thompson: A Therapeutic Relationship and a Senior Perspective (1964-1968)

Early/Mid 1970s: Gay Liberation, the Women's Movement, Black Power, and the Left

Introduction Oberlin Gay Liberation (1971) Gay Liberation Dances (early 1970s) Lesbianism and the Women's Movement (early 1970s) The Women's Collective (1972) The Human Development Program and Internship for Homosexual Concerns (early 1970s) Black Power and LGBT Students (early to mid 1970s)

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Behind the Masks

“Behind the Masks” explores LGBT life at Oberlin College from the 1920s to the early 1970s. The narrative is based on materials from the Oberlin College Archives, student publications, secondary sources, and over seventy oral histories conducted with alumni, faculty, and staff.

I offer this narrative as a work in progress. You can help enrich and shape the final monograph, likely a book, by recording related experiences in the comment boxes found after each sub-section. Women and people of color are particularly encouraged to post their experiences. You may also contact me with stories or feedback.

The entire narrative, in PDF form, can be downloaded here. (495 KB)

Joey Plaster (OC 00)
May 2006