Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America

Chapter 6: Classroom Anxieties: Educators and Homosexuality

6 Classroom Anxieties Educators and Homosexuality In the popular 1953 Broadway play Tea and Sympathy, a teacher named Harris befriends a sulky, naive, and effeminate teenage student named Tom Lee. Both Harris and Tom Lee are rumored to be gay at their elite prep school, and rumors fly wildly after other students witness the two swimming in the nude at a local beach. Eventually the rumors make their way to the dean’s office, and Harris learns his job is in jeopardy as a result. Unaware that other students had witnessed them, Harris assumes that Tom had told the dean about their outing and perhaps lied that something sexual had occurred between them. Harris confronts Tom: Harris: [The dean] didn’t call you in and ask you about last saturday afternoon? TOM: Why should he? i didn’t do anything wrong. Harris: about being with me? TOM: i’m allowed to leave town for the day in the company of a master. Harris: i don’t believe you. You must have said something. TOM: about what? Harris: about you and me going down to the dunes and swimming. 121 122 / Masked Voices TOM: Why should i tell him about that? Harris: (Threatening) Why didn’t you keep your mouth shut? TOM: about what, for God’s sake? Harris: i never touched you, did i? TOM: What do you mean, touch me? Harris: Did you say to the Dean i touched you? TOM: (Turning away from Harris) i don’t know what you’re talking about. Harris: Here’s what i’m talking about. The Dean’s had me on the carpet all afternoon. i probably won’t be reappointed next year . . . all because i took you swimming down off the dunes on saturday.1 Harris’s paranoia captured the anxiety thousands of gay and lesbian edu‑ cators suffered in these years. Persons suspected of being gay or lesbian were watched more carefully by their bosses and colleagues, and rumors or accusations could end a career. Harris’s paranoia also reflected pat‑ terns of McCarthyism because he assumed Tom had informed on him. Tom, completely unaware anything might have been inappropriate about their swimming together and that others might read sexual meanings into it, truthfully denied informing on his teacher. Ultimately, Harris lost his job, and Tom suffered taunts and harassment from his classmates for the remainder of the play. (interestingly, the character of Harris was cut from 1956 movie version of Tea and Sympathy because filmmakers wanted to tone down the story’s gay themes.)2 Teachers have long been held to higher standards of public moral‑ ity than other professionals because they serve as role models. in years past, teachers were prohibited from “smoking, drinking, dancing, curs‑ ing, theatre‑going, divorce, breaking the sabbath, or (for women) stay‑ ing out after dark,” according to one scholar.3 Homosexuality had always been considered unacceptable for teachers in the United states, but before World War ii it was less talked about in the field of education and there were significant degrees of freedom within that silence. after World War ii, however, after the Kinsey reports and the lavender scare, there was more of an urgency to discover and dismiss lesbian and gay teachers. Not only were gay people national security threats in an era of Classroom Anxieties / 123 cold war peril (hence, untrustworthy in a classroom), but many experts feared that gay teachers might “infect” students with their homosexuality. Many psychologists, the socially recognized experts on homosexuality in the 1950s, believed that homosexuality was a socially acquired trait, that it was “learned behavior.” Homosexuality resulted when something “went wrong” during a child or adolescent’s psychosexual development, according to their theories. Experts usually blamed overbearing moth‑ ers, but they also warned of the grave dangers posed by gay or lesbian educators at all levels of education.4 Before World War ii, gay and especially lesbian teachers blended into their professions easier because unmarried people dominated the profession. in 1920, for example, 78 percent of teachers were single women (including those divorced or widowed). By 1960, however, that number had dropped to 29 percent. schools aggressively pushed to hire teachers who were married, which drew more attention to the bachelor and “spinster” teachers who might be gay or lesbian.5 Gay people in het‑ erosexual marriages also had to be extra cautious in their behavior. The letters show that gay...