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 "Has
the Laboratory Been a Closet?"
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"Has the Laboratory Been a Closet?"
Lecture Sheds Light on Gay and Lesbian
Scientists
When Dr. Bert Hansen, Associate Professor of History at Baruch
College of The City University of New York, addressed the audience
at NLM's Lister Hill Auditorium on June 15th, he encouraged them to
look at the history of science through an interesting and rarely
used lens: that is, to focus on the gay and lesbian lives in the
field.
Why do the history books find fascination with famous
heterosexual partnerships in science, like the Lavoisiers and the
Curies, but give short shrift to same- sex partnerships that may
have lasted just as long and been just as productive? This was just
one of the questions posed.
The lecture, held in celebration of Gay and Lesbian Awareness
Month at NIH, was cosponsored by NLM and Salutaris, the NIH Gay and
Lesbian Employees Forum. Hansen's talk was not restricted to gays
and lesbians in medical research but spanned many areas of
scientific inquiry. Several underlying questions, however, connected
the examples he presented: Why does sex (or sexual agenda or
identity) matter? And how and when do the personal and the
scientific intersect? Dr. Hansen captured the attention of the crowd
when he described a brilliant young lesbian studying medicine in the
late 1890s. She didn't complete her degree, maybe because of the
dissonance between her field (with its disdain for gay persons) and
her lifestyle.
The young lady, Johns Hopkins Class of 1901, had a reputation as
a very creative person in the laboratory. Her name was Gertrude
Stein. Noted economist and statesman John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
had a long-term, single-sex relationship, despite being married.
However, Keynes, like many other gay scientists, worked mightily to
keep his homosexual relationship under wraps.
Alan Turing (1912-54) was a brilliant mathematician and is
considered one of the fathers of the modern-day computer. Turing was
made an Officer of the British Empire for his heroic work to crack
the "Enigma" code and for other patriotic feats during World War II,
but an arrest for a so-called "offense against morals" led him to
commit suicide at age 41.
Alice Fletcher (1838-1923), a pioneer ethnologist and leader in
the movement to integrate Native Americans into mainstream society,
saw a need for direct observation of Native American life. So, she
lived and worked among the native peoples for many years,
researching their lives and recording their songs and languages. Her
18-year partner in this effort was Jane Gay, who took many
photographs and endured challenging conditions in the dusty plains
and frozen mountains. Dr. Hansen said that Alice Fletcher's
lesbianism, and the way it kept her out of the centers of power and
influence in her time, helped her understand and work harder to
eliminate the ostracism of Native Americans.
Dr. Hansen gave other interesting examples of gay and lesbian
scientists, their towering achievements and the dark moments that
came when they revealed their sexual preference. He pleaded with his
colleagues who toil in the history of science to "write a different
kind of biography," that is, to be open and frank whenever possible
in making references to homosexuality. He also said that, with the
wealth of materials he has uncovered, he may produce a book on the
subject of gays and lesbians in science, somewhere down the road.
Apparently, the closet door of the laboratory would be opened quite
a bit wider with such a work.
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