Ethics, Homophobia and a Happy Ending: Investigating The Tearoom Trade

Let’s go back to the 1960s. A time of Richard Nixon, moon obsession, hippies, the Vietnam war and… no ethics committees.    Born in Oklahoma in 1930, Robert Allan Humphreys was a man of many disguises. Ordained an Episcopalian priest in 1955, Humphreys changed his name to Laud after William Laud, a seventeenth-century Archbishop of Canterbury (he was very holy).   Humphreys followed the traditional 1960s path…got married, got kicked out of the church and started a PhD in sociology focussing on male-to-male sex in the St Louis area public restrooms. Then he destroyed a picture of Nixon and got sent to jail for 3 months where he was offered an academic position (naturally!).   This just got a little more interesting.    In the days of keeping up appearances and things being illegal which definitely should NOT be illegal, there was more homosexual activity happening in public restrooms (otherwise known as “tearooms”) than anyone cared to hear about.    But Humphreys was determined to understand exactly what was going on, who was doing what, and why. He wanted up close and personal details.    Now, being a professional and someone sincerely dedicated to the betterment of humanity, Humphreys began conducting some serious research. This included going undercover as a “watch queen”, gathering data on the who, what and when and eventually gaining the confidence of some of the men he observed.    12 months later, Humphreys pops on a disguise and rocks up to the private homes of a bunch of his original “subjects” claiming to be a health service interviewer, interviewing them about their marital status, race, job and so on.    Oh, did we mention he found them by sneaking a peek at their licence plates outside the tearooms and asked his police buddy to run the addresses? Minor detail.    Could Humphreys have gone about his research in a more honest and less invasive manner? Yes.   Did Humphrey’s findings have the potential to threaten the social standings of the men whose extremely personal information he collected without consent? Absolutely.    But, although Humphreys may not have had the most above-board ethical approach, he has since proven to help move humanity in the right direction.    Following his investigation into the tearooms, Humphrey’s publications helped legitimise American gay and lesbian studies within sociology and challenged the notion of homosexuality as deviance. It also led to fewer men being arrested for having consensual sex. Pretty good, no?    But the question on everyone’s lips is, does the end justify the means? PRIOR EPISODES MENTIONED: Why Are the Proud Boys So Obsessed With (Not) Wanking? Isaac Newton Coin Detective SOURCES: Sociology Professor accused of beating student NY Times June 10, 1968 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/06/10/77178200.html?pageNumber=25 OBITUARY Robert Allan Humphreys; Priest, Author L.A. TIMES ARCHIVES AUG. 26, 1988 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-26-mn-797-story.html Humphreys, Laud (1930-1988) by Stephen O. Murray http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/humphreys_l_S.pdf   Biography - Source: Stephen O. Murray, "Humphreys, Laud (1930-1988)," An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Culture, http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/humphreys_l.html, last accessed June 20, 2007. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt187025pr/entire_text/   Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Sex Study https://drjkoch.org/Intro/Readings/Humphreys.htm   Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Sex Study -  Dr. Joan Sieber, Visiting Research Scholar, The Kennedy Institute, 1977-78, and Professor of Psychology, California State University, Hayward https://drjkoch.org/Intro/Readings/Humphreys.htm   Ethics I metal health research case study: The Tearoom Trade Study James M. DuBois https://sites.google.com/a/narrativebioethics.com/emhr/contact/the-tearoom-trade-study-1   Laud Humphreys and Research Ethics Babbie, Earl.  The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy; Bingley Vol. 24, Iss. 3-5,  (2004): 12-19. DOI:10.1108/01443330410790849   Editorial Introduction: Moving Beyond the Controversy: Remembering the Many Contributions of Laud Humphreys to Sociology and the Study of Sexuality Schacht, Steven P.  The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy; Bingley Vol. 24, Iss. 3-5,  (2004): 3.   America’s Toe-Tapping Menace - By Laura M. Mac Donald Sept. 2, 2007 https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/opinion/02macdonald.html Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places RA ‘Laud’ Humphreys (1970)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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