A Gay Purge at Harvard, 1920 - The Gay & Lbian Review

Contents:

• A GAY PURGE AT HARVARD, 1920
• THE HARVARD GAY & LBIAN REVIEW
• THE BT OF THE HARVARD GAY & LBIAN REVIEW

A GAY PURGE AT HARVARD, 1920

The ia of gay and lbian people existg was no surprise to me, but the fact that I had iated a same-genr romance a vioMore.

In the early 1960s, Hansen argued that magaz like ONE and Tangents should be aimed primarily at heterosexuals, not homosexuals.

The same uld be said of his novels, which are wrten as much for straight rears as for gay on. Ramadan ftly ptur what means to be a homosexual a eply relig culture racked wh polil vlence, where nearly every aspect of life is dictated by tradn and the Koran, which turn is driven by the patriarchal and the mascule.

THE HARVARD GAY & LBIAN REVIEW

In Memoriam ptur the atmosphere of ele public schools at the time, pecially the rampant, barely ncealed homoeroticism, often mixed wh vlence. HARDLY FIND a more diverse group of books than this: one by a pneerg Jewish lbian poet origally om Poland; one by a French surrealist; and a third by a gay man livg Dallas. He acknowledg that ntemporary rears might fd some of the book irrelevant, but his aim is “to show what the unfoldg of gayMore.

Greenough, skirtg the ual channels for vtigatg allegatns of stunt wrong-dog, nvened a secret five-member board—referred to the College’s own rerds as The Court—to gather evince ncerng homosexual activi at Harvard. It turns out that shortly before he took his own life, Wilx had told his olr brother Gee that he was havg a homosexual affair wh an olr man who lived on Bean Hill. That is, they wanted nam and more nam, not jt of homosexuals at Harvard, but also of any men who knowgly associated wh homosexuals.

In the end, the Court found fourteen men “guilty” eher of mtg homosexual acts or of beg, the lorful language of Greenough, “too closely associated wh those who have been guilty of the acts. —dit that The Court saw homosexualy as a kd of moral ntagn that mt be ntaed before spread yet further.

THE BT OF THE HARVARD GAY & LBIAN REVIEW

We see this worry over homosexualy’s fect power the letters Greenough wrote to parents of stunts found guilty of associatg wh homosexuals: “The acts qutn are so unspeakably gross that the timat of those who m the acts bee tated, and, though an entirely different class om the prcipals, mt for the moment be separated om the College.