A footnote to the bizarre tragicomedy in which Larry Craig now appears is a doctoral dissertation from the 1960s by a researcher named Laud Humphreys. While a grad student at Washington University in St. Louis, Humphreys conducted an ethnography of men who had sex with men in public bathrooms. His research was later published as a book, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. Humphreys’ study revealed a complicated subculture, one that was shocking to many people and challenged stereotypes: many of the men were married, didn’t identify as being gay and had a socially and politically conservative public persona.
The methods Humphreys used to obtain this information have become a text book case of unethical research. Humphreys did tell some of his subjects about his research, but he also secretly followed other subjects and interviewed them at their homes under the guise of a “social health survey.” It’s the kind of stuff you’d never get by an IRB. Of course, Humphreys didn’t have to — IRBs didn’t exist when he conducted his study.
So, what should we make of all this today? To some, Humphreys is a person to admire, flaws and all. His research helps us better understand the (maybe not so) bizarre situation surrounding Larry Craig. And the concept of a man who doesn’t identify as gay, yet still has sex with men, has become important to public health campaigns and studying the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections. But there’s still that residue of research impropriety. What, if anything, do we do about that? Is it enough to acknowledge the mistakes and vow to do better?
-Greg Dahlmann
image: Amazon – “Mike’s Library”