Science and Homosexualities Science and Homosexualities Edited by Vernon A. Rosario ROUTLEDGE NEWYORK LoNDON Publishedin 1997by Routledge 270MadisonAve, NewYorkNY 10016 PublishedinGreatBritainby Routledge 2ParkSquare,Milton Park, Abingdon,Oxon,OX14 4RN TransferredtoDigitalPrinting2010 Copyright© 1997byRoutledge,Inc. Allrights reserved. No partofthis bookmay bereprintedorreproducedor utilizedinany form orbyanyelectronic,mechanicalorothermeans, now knownorhereafterinvented,in cludingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem, with outpermissioninwritingfrom the publisher. AnneFausto-Sterling,"Howto BuildaMan."Copyright©AnneFausto-Sterling, 1995. JenniferTerry,"TheSeductivePowerofScienceinthe MakingofDeviantSubjectivity."Copy right ©JenniferTerry, 1993, 1996.An earlierversion ofthis chapterappearedin Post-Human Bodies, eds. Ira Livingston andJudith Halberstam (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995). LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData ScienceandHomosexualities/editedbyVernonA.Rosario II. p. ern. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN 0-415-91501-5 (hardcover).- ISBN0-415-91502-3 (pbk.) 1. Homosexuality-Geneticaspects. 2. Homosexuality-Research. 3. Homosexuality-Philosophy. 1.Rosario, VernonA. HQ76.25.S48 1996 306.76'6-dc20 96-9673 CIP Publisher'sNote Thepublisherhasgone togreatlengths toensure thequalityofthisreprint butpointsout that someimperfectionsintheoriginalmaybeapparent. Toourparentsofthe mind: teachers, activists,and mentors. Thanksfor the intellectualand political legacy! Contents Acknowledgments IX VernonA.Rosario HomosexualBio-Histories: Genetic Nostalgiasand the QuestforPaternity HubertKennedy KarlHeinrichUlrichs, FirstTheoristofHomosexuality 26 AliceD. Dreger HermaphroditesinLove:TheTruthofthe Gonads 46 HarryOosterhuis Richard von Krafft-Ebing's"Step-ChildrenOfNature": Psychiatryand the MakingofHomosexual Identity 67 I VernonA.Rosario Inversion'sHistories History's Inversions:Novelizing Fin-de-SiecleHomosexuality 89 Margaret Gibson Clitoral Corruption: BodyMetaphorsandAmerican Doctors' ConstructionsofFemaleHomosexuality, 1870-1900 108 JamesD. Steakley Perscientiamadjustitiam:Magnus Hirschfeld and the SexualPoliticsofInnateHomosexuality 133 Julian Carter Normality, Whiteness,Authorship: Evolutionary Sexologyand the Primitive Pervert 155 Erin G. Carlston ''AFinerDifferentiation": FemaleHomosexualityand theAmerican MedicalCommunity, 1926-1940 177 Stephanie H. Kenen WhoCountsWhenYou'reCountingHomosexuals? Hormonesand HomosexualityinMid-Twentieth- CenturyAmerica 197 Anne Fausto-Sterling How to BuildaMan 219 Richard C. Pillard TheSearchforaGeneticInfluence on SexualOrientation 226 GarlandE.Allen TheDouble-EdgedSwordofGeneticDeterminism: Socialand PoliticalAgendasin GeneticStudiesof Homosexuality, 1940-1994 242 JenniferTerry TheSeductivePowerofSciencein the Makingof DeviantSubjectivity 271 Notes on Contributors 297 Index 301 Acknowledgments This volume grew out ofa pair ofpanels entitled "Science and (Homo)Sexualities" whichwereheld atthe 1994HistoryofScienceSociety(HSS)AnnualMeeting.These werethe firstpanels at the HSS meetingto dealwiththe historyofhomosexuality. In additiontothankingGarlandAllen,AliceDomuratDreger,AnneFausto-Sterling,and JenniferTerry (whose essaysin this anthologywere originallydelivered at the confer ence), Iwouldliketo thankthe otherswho participatedin andhelpedorganize these panels, including Evelynn Hammonds, Bert Hansen, Gregg Mitman, Robert Nye, Maggie Osler, LondaSchiebinger, and, especially,JoanCaddenfordoingmostofthe networking. I am grateful to Bill Germano and Eric Zinner ofRoutledge for their enthusiasticsupportofthis project. Finally,Ithankallthe contributorsfor tolerating mygentle, regular,electronicproddingandmy repeateddemandsfor revisions. Homosexual Bio-Histories Genetic Nostalgias and the Quest for Paternity Vernon A. Rosario Ihavesome reasonforbelievingthatsomeofmyrelatives(on the pater nal side) were not normal in their sexual life.... [L]ong before pu berty-whichwasearlywith me-I rememberbeinggreatlyattractedto certain boys,and wishing tohaveanopportunityofsleepingwith them. ...Asamedicalstudent,thefirstreferencebearingdefinitelyon thesub jectofsexualinversion wasmade in the classofMedicalJurisprudence, where certain sexualcrimeswerealluded to asmanifestationsofthe criminal depravity ofordinaryorinsanepeople Ifeltthatthis teach- ing must be based on some radical error or prejudice or misapprehen sion, for I knew from my own very clear remembrance of my own developmentthatmypeculiaritywasnotacquired, butinborn; mygreat misfortuneundoubtedly, butnotmyfault. -Dr. E.S.(1897) Twohotpussiesbumpingin the night. There's notevenasingleguyinsight. That's 'causethey'redykes.It'swhattheylike. Forthem, it'snatural! It'snatural! Hello!Hello! They're notsick,theydon't need to heal. It'saboutasnaturalasoatmeal. It'snatural! It'snatural! Right?Hello! When Iwasaboy,Ihad alittle toy. Itwasn'treallymuchatall. Itwasadoll.Yousee,Iwasgay. Mydaddysaid,"Whyyou gottabethatway?" Isaid,"Why? Because,because,because,because,because,because! Becauseit'snatural! It'snatural! Yousee,forme, it'snatural!" --Tabboo! (1995) 2 VERNONA.ROSARIO Anocean ofculturaldifferencesandacenturyseparate Dr. E.S.'spoignantself-analy sisfrom drag queenTabboo!'s defiantpCEan to queernesssungto the crowds at Wig stock(New York'sannualdrag extravaganza). Yetthe two menseem likehomosexual relatives.Thefifty-year-old Victorianphysician'sconfession topioneeringBritish sex ologist HavelockEllis(1897, 100-105) evokesavariety ofissuesthatareasrelevant to the presentscientific andculturalanalysisofhomosexualityastheywere to the late nineteenth-centuryEuro-American explorationof"sexualinversion."Then, asnow, two points are especially important. First, numerous avowed homosexuals declared that theirsame-sex eroticattractionwasinnate. AsanotherofEllis'scorrespondents expressedit:"Icannotregard mysexualfeelingsasunnaturalorabnormal,sincethey have disclosed themselves soperfectlynaturallyandspontaneouslywith me" (Ellis, 108). Second, sincethesesubjects andtheirdoctorsperceived homosexualattraction to becongenital,they believeditto be"natural"-inotherwords, bodilyandbiolog icallyingrained.This,in turn,justifiedthe ethical conclusionexpressedbyone ofEl lis'shomosexualcolleagues:''Asamedical man, Ifailtoseemorallyanyunhealthiness, oranythingthatnatureshouldbeashamedotinconnectionwith,andsympathyfor, men" (Ellis,162). In otherwords, it'sasnaturalandwholesomeasoatmeal! In the pastfiveyears,enormousmediaattentionhasbeen devotedto researchon the biological basis ofhomosexuality. The u.S. popular press has represented this neurobiological and genetic research asthoroughlyinnovative and groundbreaking (seefor instance, Burr 1993b, 47-48).Theimpressionofnovelty has been perpetu ated bythe scientific researchers themselves.' For example, Dean Hamer, abiologist particularlyidentifiedwith the "search for the gaygene," summarizeswhat ismost likelythe popularunderstandingofthe medical historyofhomosexuality: Beginninginthelate1800s,psychiatristsandpsychologiststurnedtheirattentionto homosexualityand concludedthatitwasamentaldisorder causedbyamisguided upbringing.This diseasemodel remained theprimarywayofthinkingabouthomo sexualityduringmostofthetwentiethcentury.More recently,however,somescien tistshavebeguntoviewboth heterosexualityandhomosexualityasnaturalvariations ofthe human condition that areat leastasdeeply rootedin natureasin nurture. (Hamer& Copeland1994, 20)2 This isaserious misrepresentation that tries to dismiss earlier research aspsycholo gizing and pathologizing while glorifying current "scientific" work (including Hamer's) thatvindicates homosexuals by naturalizingthem.Thisvolumewill show thatsincethe mid-nineteenthcentury, whenmedical scientists began grapplingwith whatthey perceivedasanewbehavioralandpsychological disorder, acontinuousline ofresearchershasassumedthathomosexualityisabiological phenomenon.Asthe ti tle ofthis anthologysuggests, numerous diagnostic names were employed: contrary sexualfeeling, psychosexual hermaphroditism,sexualinversion, unisexualism, sexual perversion; in the caseofmen, sodomy, pederasty, andeffeminacy; andin the caseof women, lesbianism, tribadism, feminism, andeviration (to namejustafew).Multi-