Laud Humphreys

Robert Allan Humphreys (1930–1988), known as Laud Humphreys, was an American sociologist and Episcopal priest.

Robert Allan Humphreys was born on October 16, 1930, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Ira Denver Humphreys and Stella Bernice Humphreys.

"Laud" was chosen as his first name when he was baptized again upon entering the Episcopal Church.

Humphreys graduated from Chickasha High School (Chickasha, Oklahoma) in 1948.

He then attended Colorado College, graduating with his BA in 1952.

He attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (in Evanston, Illinois), graduating with the MDiv degree in 1955.

Humphreys married Nancy Wallace, a woman from a prominent Tulsa family in 1960.

The couple had two children, Claire and David.

In 1965, he entered graduate school at Washington University to pursue a PhD in sociology.

His dissertation adviser was Lee Rainwater.

Humphreys obtained two pre-doctoral research fellowships from the National Institute of Mental Health to fund his dissertation research.

He completed his dissertation in 1968, graduated with his PhD in that year.

After graduating with his PhD from Washington University, Humphreys was an assistant professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois, from 1968 to 1970.

His book won the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1969.

Due to the controversy around his research methods and the topic of his research, there was a failed attempt by the chancellor of Washington University to rescind his PhD.

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 was overwhelmingly considered unethical research methods.

He influenced generations of scholars who research issues related to sexuality and sexual identity.

He published the dissertation as Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places in 1970.

He was associate professor of sociology at the School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York in Albany 1970–1972.

Humphreys is best known for his published PhD dissertation, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (1970), an ethnographic study of anonymous male-male sexual encounters in public toilets (a practice known as "tea-rooming" in US gay slang and "cottaging" in British English).

Humphreys asserted that the men participating in such activity came from diverse social backgrounds, had differing personal motives for seeking sexual partners in such venues, and variously self-perceived as "straight," "bisexual," or "gay."

Because Humphreys was able to confirm that over 50% of his subjects identified as heterosexual men who were married to women, a primary thesis of Tearoom Trade is the incongruence between the private self and the social self for many of the men engaging in this form of homosexual activity.

Specifically, they put on a "breastplate of righteousness" (social and political conservatism) in an effort to conceal their sexual behavior and prevent being exposed as deviants.

Humphreys tapped into a theme of incongruence between one's words and deeds that has become a primary methodological and theoretical concern in sociology throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

Humphreys' study has been criticized by sociologists and other social and behavioral scientists on ethical grounds in that he observed sexual acts by masquerading as a voyeur, "did not get his subjects’ consent, tracked down names and addresses through license plate numbers, and interviewed the men in their homes in disguise and under false pretenses."

He was associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College, in Claremont, California, from 1972 to 1975; he earned full professorship at Pitzer in 1975, where he worked until about 1980, when he began to focus on his psychotherapist practice.

Humphreys belonged to several sociological professional organizations, including the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

He was a charter member of the International Academy of Sex Research.

During his academic career, he served on a number of editorial boards and served as chair of multiple professional society committees.

He was an invited speaker at more than a dozen symposia and other events, and was a guest on four TV shows.

In 1974, Humphreys came out as a gay man during a discussion at a conference session at the ASA.

Humphreys was a co-founder of the Sociologists' Gay Caucus, (now the Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People in Sociology), established in 1974 as a response to a presentation by Edward Sagarin that criticized homosexual sociologists as hiding in the closet.

Humphreys separated from his wife in 1980 and began living with Brian Miller, a graduate student at the University of Alberta.

That same year, he was certified to practice as a psychotherapist in California.

For most of the rest of his life, he was in private practice, although he and Miller co-authored articles about gay subcultures and victims of violent homophobia.

He was professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, from 1972 to 1988 and died of lung cancer on August 23, 1988, aged 57.

His biography, written by John F. Galliher, Wayne H. Brekhus, and David P. Keys, was published in 2004, under the title Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology.

The authors establish the case that Humphreys was an extremely complex person and that he was professionally marginalized in the discipline of sociology.

The book also heralds his contributions to the discipline of sociology, as well as his advocacy for African-American civil rights, gay rights, and against war.

The University of Southern California houses the Laud Humphreys Papers Collection, as part of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.