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© 2002 American Public Health Association
LETTER |
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Bert Hansen, PhD, Department of History, Baruch College, 17 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010(e-mail: bert_hansen{at}baruch.cuny.edu).
Rogatz is correct in calling Dr Howard Brown "a real hero" and hailing his "courage and social commitment." But as a historian, I would emphasize that coming out is not the only heroic action for a gay person, because distinct historical periods offer different choices.
Brown's career was shaped by the second and third eras of 20th-century gay history, and he faced circumstances quite different from those of his predecessors profiled in my article.1 Those 5 physicians (S. Josephine Baker, Ethel Collins Dunham, Martha May Eliot, Alan L. Hart, and Harry Stack Sullivan) practiced medicine in a pre–World War II culture where there was relatively little public discussion of homosexuality. They faced many difficulties, but there was no single towering wall of homophobia to scale in making their careers. Sexuality was a more private matter then, and gay individuals experienced a fair amount of personal freedom in the pursuit of intimacy.
But this latitude had narrowed greatly by the time Brown was coming of age in the 1940s. Military recruitment for World War II included screening for homosexuals, and members of the armed forces who were found to be homosexuals were given dishonorable discharges. The Kinsey reports in 1948 and 1953 made all forms of sexual activity, especially homosexual behavior, more visible. America became more aware—and sometimes more wary—of sexual variations. Postwar family values reinforced negative attitudes, and in the 1950s, McCarthyist hysteria proclaimed sexual "deviates" traitors to American life. It was in this climate of aggressively enforced heterosexual conformity that Brown began his public career.
In the 1970s, Brown found himself in new circumstances, triggered by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 and shaped by gay liberation and other social movements. In his late 40s, Brown came out, shifted his leadership from public health to gay activism, and made lasting contributions in this "second career."
Post-Stonewall America presents a distinct historical setting and new options in managing public careers and private sexuality. Most gay professionals no longer have to hide their identity and personal life to make important contributions. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in medicine and public health now have support through such organizations as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (http://www.glma.org/home.html) and the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.noglstp.org).
Reference
1.
Hansen B. Public careers and private sexuality: some gay and lesbian lives in the history of medicine and public health. Am J Public Health.2002;92:36–44.
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