Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade

In the 1960s in los angeles supposed homosexual behavior was a felony charge under the law.

Laud humphreys tearoom trade.

Humphreys s study produced very important results. Perhaps not surprisingly given the topic the research was highly controversial however this was not just due to its sensitive subject matter. In sociologist and ordained episcopalian minister laud humphreys published his book the tearoom trade. In the s phd student in sociology laud.

Without telling people that he was studying them laud humphreys 1975 observed hundreds of homosexual acts among men in st. Robert allan laud humphreys october 16 1930 in chickasha oklahoma august 23 1988 was an american sociologist and author. Laud humphreys and the tearoom sex study. The men involved in this tearoom trade as it is called came from all walks of life and many were married and living otherwise straight lives.

In tearoom trade 1970 1975 laud humphreys writes about the homosexual relations that took place in various tearooms i e public bathrooms in an unidentified american city during the mid to late 1960s. He influenced generations of scholars who research. Humphreys is best known for his published ph d. Dissertation which was entitled tearoom trade.

He was a charter member of the tearkom academy of sex research. Impersonal sex in public places. Dissertation tearoom trade 1970 an ethnographic study of anonymous male male sexual encounters in public toilets a practice known as tea rooming in u s. Humphreys asserted that the men participating in such activity came from diverse social backgrounds.

Laud humphreys died in from lung cancer. Without disclosing his role as a sociology researcher humphreys played the role of watchqueen that is he looked out for intruders while men performed. Case studies debates about the ethics of the tearoom trade study methodology. A study of homosexual encounters in public places the study is an analysis of male male sexual behavior in public toilets.

He is noted for his research into sexual encounters between men in public bathrooms published as tearoom trade 1970 and for the questions that emerged from what many believe to be unethical research methods. Gay slang and cottaging in british english. In 1970 laud humphreys then a washington university phd student wrote his infamous thesis tearoom trade which was a study of homosexual behaviour between men in public toilets in a u s. Impersonal sex in public places is a 1970 book by laud humphreys humphreys book is based on his 1968 ph d.

By pretending to be a simple voyeur humphreys explains that he systematically observed these activities and even recorded the license plate numbers of a sample of tearoom. Humphreys argued his deception was justified as the acts were so stigmatised he would not have got the information otherwise. An exchange in norman k.