Donald Webster Cory (1913 - 1986)
(Edward Sagarin)

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In its original (1951) edition, The Homosexual In America was the first widely-read book in the U.S. to demonstrate the legal, social and economic discrimination leveled against an "amazingly large" segment of the American population and to put forward a strong defense of homosexual rights and a view of homosexuals as "the unrecognized minority." Writing pseudonymously but "as a homosexual," the author describes aspects of the Gay subculture, examines reasons for social hostility, and surveys anti-homosexual provisions in the penal code and their adverse social consequences. In spite of his civil libertarian stand against the persecution of homosexuals, whose "worst effect" has been homosexual self-contempt, Cory accepts a traditionally negative view of the causation of homosexuality, feeling it arises from "lack of a well-balanced home," especially an "unusually strong attachment for one parent." Such views may begin to explain Cory's later defection from the homosexual liberation movement. The Homosexual In America was extremely important in bringing the topic of homosexuality into more open and informed discussion, in encouraging the early homophile movement and influencing its thinking. The book deals preponderantly with male homosexuality; appendices include U.S. government documents and a checklist of literary works. In his New Introduction Cory states his judgment that homosexuality is essentially less desirable than heterosexuality; homosexuality, he says, constitutes a symptom of neurosis, which, however, does not justify social persecution and the denial of civil rights.

Donald Webster Cory (1913 - 1986)

WRITER, SOCIOLOGIST

Donald Webster Cory is a pseudonym for Edward Sagarin.   

Works by Donald Webster Cory:

Homosexual Incest

By Donald Webster Cory

(from Masters, R.E.L., ed. Patterns of Incest: A Psycho-social Study of Incest Based on Clinical and Historic Data. New York: The Julian Press, Inc., 1963. 265-273.)

Excerpt:

A great deal has been written, particularly since Freud, about the relationship between homosexuality and incest. In much of this literature it has been contended, by Freud and many of his followers, that one of the major factors in the genesis of homosexuality is the flight from incest. Very little, however, has been written about incestuous relations that are homosexual; that is, about overt sexual interests and/or activities between two brothers, two sisters, or between a parent and child of the same sex...

Homosexuals Intransigent!

By Craig Schoonmaker

Excerpt:

Homosexuals Intransigent!   Founded April 1, 1969 — almost three full months before the Stonewall Riots that gave rise to the Gay Liberation Movement — as a student organization at the City College of the City University of New York, HI! published several issues of a newsletter, held a couple of dances on campus, and had an outsize influence on the course of the Gay Movement.

HI!'s founder, L. Craig Schoonmaker, is the man who first offered the term "Gay Pride" for events surrounding the first annual demonstration commemorating Stonewall, in New York City in 1970. He helped found that event, and bears some slight responsibility for its becoming too freewheeling. Here's the story, in Craig's own words...

In the spring semester I was able to turn my attention to forming a gay-rights group by writing and posting flyers on bulletin boards all over City College.  I managed to gather a number of students into an organizing committee, but had to get a faculty advisor. By chance, someone I knew socially (and who was then quite beautiful), a young man named Peter Vogel, was in charge of the student affairs department. But he was "in the closet". His second-in-command was a bisexual named Irwin (I won't use his last name because I don't know if he ever "came out"). They had both heard the rumor that a member of the Sociology faculty, Edward Sagarin, was the real person behind the pseudonymous "Donald Webster Cory" who had written a couple of books, most importantly The Homosexual In America (as I recall the title). These two student-center staffers suggested I approach Sagarin to be faculty advisor to Homosexuals Intransigent!

I looked him up, and he turned out to be a short, older-middle-aged hunchback — literally; he manifestly suffered from scoliosis. When I put my proposal to him, he rebuffed me, saying that tho he thought homosexuals should not be denied their civil rights, he didn't think they should agitate for recognition as being normal! I am convinced that the rumors were correct, and that the ugly, twisted hunchback Edward Sagarin was indeed "Donald Webster Cory" but refused to risk "coming out" in sponsoring a student organization that dared call itself Homosexuals Intransigent!

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