LHMP #470 Katz 1978 Gay American History

This is a collection of excerpts from historic sources related to homosexuality in America. As with other publications of this sort, I’m mostly going to be cataloging the items of interest. Although it’s a very thick little paperback, the lesbian content is sparse. In fact, Katz notes, “In the present volume, Lesbian-related material is dispersed unequally within the parts, and not always readily identifiable by title—thus difficult to locate at a glance. For this reason, a female sign [i.e., the “Venus” symbol] is here placed beside the title of each text containing the most substantial references to women-loving women.” While this tagging doesn’t cover all the lesbian-related material, it provides me with a convenient way of skimming the rest.

The material is organized in thematic groups, and then chronologically within each group.

Trouble: 1566-1966

• John Cotton (1636) – A proposed law for Massachusetts that would have included sex between women under the anti-sodomy law.
• William Bradford (1642) – A history of Plymouth Plantation that includes references to an outbreak of “wickedness” including sexual sins of a wide range of types.
• New Haven Colony (1655) – A law code that included female homosexuality among crimes punishable by death.
• Moreau de St. Mery (1793-98) – A French diplomat living in Philadelphia comments on lesbian relations there.
• Irving C. Rosse (1892) – A paper read to a medical society that detailed a variety of “perversions” prevalent in Washington D.C. It includes a reference to the availability of French lesbian literature, as well as two instances of lesbianism he became aware of through his practice.
• F.L. Sim (1892) – An “expert witness” report submitted in defense of accused lesbian murderer Alice Mitchell.
• Bertrand Russell (1896) – A description of Bryn Mawr president Carey Thomas and her interpersonal conflicts with her “friend” Miss Gwinn.
• Allan McLane Hamilton (1896) – A legal opinion in the context of relatives arguing that homosexuals were mentally incompetent to manage their own property, in order to gain control of that property.
• East Hampton Star (1897) – A news article about a female famer who “dislikes men and dogs” and had several times attacked men who trespassed on her property.

Treatment: 1884-1974

• James G. Kiernan (1884) – Case history of a young woman who engaged in “mutual masturbation” with women, treatment by cold baths, and eventual resolution by marrying the brother of one of her female lovers in order to “secure her companionship”.
• F.E. Daniel (1893) – Argument for “asexualization” (castration or removal of the ovaries) as a sentence for sexual crimes (including masturbation). The article notes that in one institution the practice was ended due to public outcry.
• Havelock Ellis (1895) – An argument that it is not possible to “cure” homosexuality and that abstinence is the best possible outcome, but that the associated “nervous disorders” alleged to result from homosexuality can be treated.

Passing Women 1782-1920

(For this section, rather than listing by the author of the text, I’ll list by the names(s) of the subject unless not provided.)

• Deborah Sampson/Robert Shurtleff (1782-1797) – Dressed as a man to enlist in the Continental army, fought in several battles, physical sex discovered during a hospital stay, honorably discharged, married a man and had several children. The subject of a fictionalized biography by Herman Mann which includes descriptions of some romantic (but non-sexual) encounters with women. (That is, whether or not the encounters happened, they were felt to be an essential element of a “passing woman narrative.”)
• Lucy Ann Lobdell (1829-91) – Excerpts from Lobdell’s 1855 autobiography from an era before Lobdell was living as a man. Also excerpts from the medical report regarding Lobdell’s insanity much later in life.
• Mary East/James How (1863) – it’s misleading to include this in a book on American history. The incident occurred in England in the early 18th century. This excerpt is from a later publication collecting up several incidents of passing women.
• Philip H. Sheridan (author) (1863) – Description of an incident in the American Civil War involving two female cross-dressing soldiers who had “an intimacy.”
• Anonymous doctor (author) (1867) – An article published in London but that makes reference to the United States, discussing gender transgression.
• Ellen Coit Brown (1879-82) – Description of an incident of female cross-dressing (not by the author) while attending Cornell University.
• Anne Morris/Frank Blunt (1894) – The sentencing for theft of an assigned-female person living as a man, who had also married a woman.

Native Americans: 1528-1976

• Francisco de Pareja (1595-1616) – Examples of questions asked by a priest during confession. Pareja was translating the Spanish version into a Native American language (Timucuan). Questions include topics of homosexuality for both men and women.
• Claude E. Schaeffer (1811) – An account of a female “berdache” in the Kutenai tribe in Montana. (In 1966 Schaeffer published an account of this person drawn from both English written sources and Kutenai oral sources. With care, it could provide a useful basis for details on this cultural practice.)
• Pierre-Jean de Smet (1841) – Account of a Snake woman who dreamed that she was a man and afterward began living as a man and was accepted as such.
• George Devereux (ca. 1850-1895) – An account published in 1937 of gender crossing among the Mohave, filtered through a Freudian lens.
• Edwin T. Denig (1855-56) – An account of a Crow woman who took on a male role, including taking four wives, and became a chief, but did not dress as a man.

Resistance: 1859-1972

• Dr. K. (1897) – From a footnote included in editions of texts by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds, attributed to a Dr. K., said to be a female physician in America. Some comments on female homosexuality.
• Miss S. (1897) – A brief statement by an American lesbian included with her case history in Sexual Inversion by Ellis and Symonds.

Love: 1779-1932

• Margaret Fuller (1823-50) – A memoir and discussion by Fuller about a crush she experienced on an older woman at age 13, as well as various comments by her and her associates on her romantic relations with women.
• Sarh Edgarton & Luella J.B. Case (1839-46) – Excerpts from letters between the two “documenting an ardent, loving friendship, filled with vague yearnings.”
• Mabel Ganson Dodge Luhan & Violet Shillito (1879-1900) – Memoirs by Luhan (multiply married and hostess of a feminist salon) about various erotic encounters in her girlhood, primarily involving fondling the breasts of other girls.
• Willa Cather (1895) – A discussion of women poets, including Sappho, though the discussion of her as a love poet makes no reference to loving women.