FATHER FIGURE Little known today, Henry Gerber pioneered gay rights in this country. A new book on Gerber and other courageous fore parents brings new attention to their brave lives and often hard times

Just in time for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender History Month, the new book Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context introduces 49 men and women whose lives and work span the twentieth century and made possible the "Will & Grace" era. Edited by Vern L. Bullough, the collection of biographical essays features significant individuals including Henry Gerber who are largely forgotten. But, as revealed in the following excerpt by Jim Kepner and Stephen O. Murray, despite our progress as a community, many of their concerns remain relevant today.

Henry Gerber (1895-1972), the crotchety Bavarian-born forefather of a gay movement in the United States, arrived in the United States in 1913. In 1917 he was briefly institutionalized in a mental institution for being homosexual. After the United States declared war on Germany, Gerber was given a choice between joining the U.S. Army or being interned for the duration of the war as an enemy alien. He chose to join the army, working as a printer and proofreader in Coblenz (in the Rhineland) as part of the American Army of occupation during the early 1920s. Gerber contacted the then-thriving Bund für Menschenrecht (Society for Human Rights, founded in 1919 by Hans Kahnert) and worked either on Blœtter für Menschenrechten (Journal for human rights, a gay periodical published in Berlin for which Gerberwrote two bylined articles from the United States that appeared in 1928 and1929) or, more likely, on an army post newspaper. His 1962 article in ONE Magazine recalled subscribing to a German homophile magazine and traveling several times to Berlin.

After the war, his citizenship status still uncertain because of the psychiatric hospitalization, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Chicago. With some help from his supervisor there, he founded a Society for Human Rights (SHR) in Chicago. The SHR's December 1924 charter from the state of Illinois as a nonprofit corporation had the stated objective

Gerber signed the application as secretary. The Reverend John T. Graves, an African-American preacher, who was the only clergyman Gerber seems to have found congenial, signed it as president, and the document lists seven directors, including Gerber and Graves.

Gerber was deeply disappointed by his inability to gain support for SHR from any physicians or advocates of sex education and sexual freedom: "The most difficult task was to get men of good reputation to back up the Society." He tried to get medical authorities to endorse the new organization,but as he said "they usually refused to endanger their reputations." He was dismayed that "the only support I got was from poor people"; the only men willing to join were "illiterate and penniless." Gerber did all the work and bore all the costs. He recalled that he had been "willing to slave and suffer and risk losing my job and savings and even my liberty for the ideal" (Katz,1978, pp. 388-393). Years after SHR collapsed, Gerber reported that he had come to realize that "most people only join clubs which already have members" (June22, 1946).

Very few individuals were even willing to receive the Society's publication, Friendship and Freedom (of which there were two issues), by mail, regarding it as akin to thieves publicly subscribing to a thieves' journal, making it easy to find criminals (as those engaging in any same-sex sexual contact were then considered). Postal censors eagerly cooperated with local law enforcement agencies to identify "sex deviants." A picture of Friendship and Freedom appeared in a German magazine (it is reproduced in Katz 1978, p. 587), and a brief review of the first issue appeared in the French journal L'Amitée in April of 1925 (originally titled Inversions).

In his 1962 retrospect, Gerber wrote that upon his return to the United States,

Gerber never said where he tried to recruit, other than through pen pals. There were speakeasies where homosexual men gathered,but Gerber neither drank nor smoked and did not like to associate with queenly with older homosexual men. Surreptitious homosexual activity in parks,restrooms, and theaters limited, if not precluded, conversation, at least any discussion about joining a legal reform organization. The few pen pals who admitted they were homosexual were interested in direct sex contacts, in trading erotic photos, or in ethereal romanticism.

Nevertheless, Gerber and his original group had a plan for gradual expansion with two cautious principles, both of which prefigured1950s' homophile organizations:

Gerber and Graves had decided to exclude bisexuals from SHR. Unbeknownst to them, SHR's vice president, Al Wining, called by Gerber an "indigent laundry queen," had a wife and two young children. The members of SHR were jailed when Weininger's wife told a social worker about an organization of "degenerates," and the social worker passed on the information to the police. The police brought along a newspaper reporter when they came calling on Gerber. As Gerber recalled:

The next morning he was taken to the Chicago Avenue Police Court, where he found John, Al, and George, a young man who had been inAl's room at the time of arrest. The Examiner reported the story under the headline,"Strange Sex Cult Exposed." The reporter claimed that Al had "brought his malefriends home and had, in full view of his wife and children, practiced 'strangesex acts' with them." He also wrote that a pamphlet of this "cult" was foundthat "urged men to leave their wives and children," a statement totallyantithetical to the SHR policy of including only exclusive homosexuals.

On Monday the detective produced a powder puff incourt that he claimed to have found in Gerber's room. This was understood byeveryone as evidence of effeminacy, although Gerber heartily denied that it washis or that he ever used powder or owned a powder puff. The judge wonderedaloud about whether Friendship and Freedom violated federal laws about sendingobscene materials through the U.S. mail-the obscenity being discussion ofhomosexuality or the persecution of homosexuals, rather than anythingparticularly prurient.

The case was dismissed and the prosecution reprimanded(by a different judge), but his legal defense cost Gerber his life savings of$600 and resulted in dismissal from his job for "conduct unbecoming a postalworker." Al pled guilty to disorderly conduct and was fined $10. Mostundistributed copies of Friendship and Freedom were confiscated by the police, along with Gerber'sprivate papers and typewriter. Despite a judge's order, they were neverreturned to him. No action on obscenity was taken although two postalinspectors were present in the court. The case left Gerber very bitter thatnone of the more affluent Chicago homosexuals helped him in a fight which heregarded as one for the collective good. Gerber was left without a job orsavings, and his dream of a Society for Human Rights was ended.

It is not clear what Gerber did to earn a livingduring the next few years. On a 1927 visit to New York City, a friend from hisnewspaper days in Coblenz introduced him to a colonel (who had been a brevetmajor general during World War I) who told Gerber he would be glad to have himin his unit if he reenlisted. Gerber did so; in 1945, he received an honorabledischarge and a $100 a month military pension. Making New York City his home,Gerber made some further efforts to organize homosexuals, although heincreasingly believed that "most bitches are only interested in sex contacts,"not challenging legal and social stigmas of homosexuality. "I have absolutelyno confidence in the dorian crowd, mostly a bunch of selfish, uncultured,ignorant egoists who have nothing for the ideal side of life," Gerber wroteBoyfrank (April 9, 1944). "Since it gets me nothing and prevents me fromenjoying my liberty in private, why bother to help others?" was the bitter viewof the one-time idealist reformer. "Why waste your time and run risks of jailover a few stupid homos who are bound to get in dutch and spill everything? Ihave gone through all this and swore to do it no more" (January 4, 1945).

Gerber also ran the pen-pal club Contacts from 1930until 1939. It had about 150 to 200 members when he began. Although mostmembers were heterosexual, it was possible for Gerber and a few otherhomosexuals to blend in, thereby avoiding attention and interference from thepostal authorities. Members were not informed who was running the club. Heproduced a monthly newsletter, generally a single mimeographed sheet for"Contacters." He also worked on a 1934 freethinking publication, Chanticleer,writing many articles in defense of homosexuality, including an early report onthe persecution of homosexuals in Germany. He missed the fact that a similarwitch-hunt against homosexuals had begun in the Soviet Union months earlier:Russia was still thought to be the only Western country that had been freedfrom legal oppression. So convinced was Gerber that religion was the source ofantihomosexual bias that he hardly saw atheism and what we might now label gaypride as separable.

In the final (1939) issue of Contacts, #10, Gerber provided a lengthy self-description of avaguely (pop-)Nietzschean misanthrope whose misogyny is dwarfed by hisanticlericalism:

This diatribe drew at least one response, the beginningof correspondence with Manuel Boyfrank. In a January 27, 1940, letter Gerberwrote Boyfrank, "I was surprised to find you a homosexual, too, but let me tellyou from experience [that] it does not pay to do anything for them. I once losta good job trying to bring them together. Most men of that type are too scaredto join any association trying to help them; the other half are only interestedin physical contacts and have no interest in helping their cause, as I found tomy sorrow." Gerber continued, immediately, with specification of his own sexualconduct, circa 1940:

In a letter to Boyfrank (March 23, 1944), however, hesaid that mutual masturbation in movie theaters was the extent of his "loveaffairs."

He might have been not quite honest, since in anotherletter to Boyfrank (July 5, 1945), he wrote, "I prefer prostitutes who havetheir price and do a good job. . . . Thousands are willing to make a coupledollars and get pleasure on top of it." In addition to their abundant supply,he stated that another advantage in this choice of sexual partners was that"prostitutes would no more call the police than a bootlegger would ask arevenuer for protection of his illegal business."

Generally unsociable, Gerber longed for that "idealfriend," but by his midforties he had settled for quick anonymous sex,primarily masturbating military men in theaters. Intellectual companionship forhim was at a geographic distance, maintained cautiously (given his experienceswith the U.S. Postal Service) by mail. From 1939 to 1957 he engaged inextensive correspondence with Manuel Boyfrank, Frank McCourt, and severalothers about how to organize homosexuals, and how to answer the prejudice andmisinformation in the press.

Gerber and his friends suffered periodic beatings,theft, and blackmail by the "dirt trade." They were further harassed by postalsnoops who opened "suspicious or obscene" mail and reported homosexuals to thepolice. In February 1942 Gerber's quarters were searched by G-2, the U.S. Armyinvestigative unit. Although they found no damaging evidence, Gerber spentweeks in the guardhouse. Gerber recalled that "they put me before a SectionVIII (undesirable) board and tried to get me out of the army on that. When Itold the president of the board I only practiced mutual masturbation with menover 21, the psychiatrist told me 'You are not a homosexual.' I nearly fell outof my chair! Imagine me fighting all my life for our cause and then be told Iwas not a homosexual!"

Although he recurrently discussed the need for ahomosexual advocacy group, Gerber felt that it was virtually impossible to findenough reliable people to start one. On Governor's Island in 1948, FredFrisbie, a nineteen-year-old soldier who had gone home with a friend ofGerber's, enthusiastically joined such a discussion over breakfast, but Gerberargued that most homosexuals would never support any organization designed toimprove the general social position of homosexuals. Frisbie was later aparticipant in Mattachine and ONE, Inc.

Some of Gerber's long-winded letters in defense ofhomosexuality (also attacking corrupt politicians, conservative moralists, andreligion) appeared in The Modern Thinker, The Freethinker, AmericanMercury, and District of Columbianewspapers, signed by "Doctor Gerber," since only a doctor was presumed to knowanything about such abnormality.

Gerber, Boyfrank, and McCourt were masculine inappearance and demeanor and felt they had little in common with effeminatequeens or lesbians. In particular, Gerber regarded women as nest builders,allies of priests, and as natural enemies of homosexuals. "Women are goodpsychologists and [it] did not take long to find out that homosexuals are theirdeadly enemies in the capture of the male" (January 4, 1945) was a leitmotif ofGerber's letters to Boyfrank. Although knowing little of the gay bar scene,they knew the park and movie theater cruising scenes well. Each had been rolleda few times. They argued among themselves about what homosexuality was and whatto do about the problems homosexuals faced. Gerber initially viewedhomosexuality as innate, then as a preference, and, after a Freudianconversion, as potential in all men ("There are no homosexuals. There is onlysex pleasure and various forms of acquiring it"-July 5, 1945, letter toBoyfrank; reiterated October 23, 1945). However, he continued to vacillateabout the existence of a homosexual kind of person as indicated by hisrhetorical question, "What homosexual in his right mind wants to marry or to be'cured'?" (August 9, 1947).

After a few relatively early partnerships with youngqueens, Gerber rarely had sex with friends or with anyone much over twenty-fiveyears of age. Although publicly opposing racism, he often expressed his own. Heviewed psychoanalysis as liberating and angrily cut off any friends, such asJan Kingma (who was involved in or founded Philadelphia's Foundation for SocialDevelopment in 1948) simply because he espoused mysticism or religion or soughtto work with sympathetic clergy. Except for the Reverend Graves, Gerberregarded any seemingly supportive clergy as a hypocrite, ignoringChristianity's implacable and essential opposition to homosexuality.

He worked some, though at a distance withMattachine-New York and ONE Magazineduring the 1950s. He wrote an account of the Society for Human Rights thatappeared in the September 1962 issue of ONE Magazine, and translated part of Magnus Hirschfeld's (1914) DieHomosexualitait des Mannes und des Weibes for the ONE Institute Quarterly. Although Gerber pressed Boyfrank to join ONE, he continued to doubtthat these organizations could win support from most gays or substantiallychange public prejudices. In a June 18, 1957, letter to Boyfrank he commentedthat "ONE and Mattachine have lots of financial trouble because the averagehomosexual is mainly interested in contacts with other homosexuals. Whenneither of these publications help in this matter but beg for contributions allthe time . . . people are discouraged. . . . So the average homosexual, unlesshe is unselfish, can see nothing in it for him and he returns to the solitaryhunt for trade."

During the 1950s he began to explore the gay bar sceneand was astonished to discover that more men than he had previously supposeddid engage in anal intercourse. Except for brief trips to Mexico and Europeduring 1951 and 1952, he spent his final years at the U.S. Soldiers' Home inWashington, DC. He worked on an autobiography "admitting my homosexuality butnot going into details," a critique of religion, a book on ethics, and a bookon sex laws. The last he titled Moral Delusions (January 4, 1945). He also worked on rewritingtranslations he had done years earlier of two German gay novels he collectivelytitled Angels in Sodom (December7, 1946). He mailed some manuscripts to Boyfrank. Either they all werelost-perhaps seized by postal inspectors-or they disappeared into Boyfrank'snever-finished cut-and-paste manuscript. Boyfrank told Kepner he did not recallreceiving them, although they are discussed in their correspondence around thattime (e.g., in an October 23, 1945, letter). Gerber also produced arecreational bulletin at the soldiers' home and wrote letters and prepared taxforms for other veterans, most of whom he despised as idiots.

Although his fledgling organization was crushed by acabal of social control agents, Gerber sowed the seed of gay pride and the ideaof fighting for gay rights in scores of correspondents, directly and indirectlyinfluencing Harry Hay, Jim Kepner, Tony Segura, Donna Smith, Fred Frisbie,Manuel Boyfrank, and others who worked to establish the homophile movement ofthe 1950s. Gerber is also a clear link between the German movement to removeParagraph 175 of the German penal code and the 1950s' law reform movement thatstill remained extremely high-risk activism for people who were not juststigmatized but whose relations-even nonsexual associations-were criminalized.He was keenly aware of the centrality of postal inspectors interfering withassociation at a distance by those seeking to organize around homosexuality andits repression, an obstacle to nonlocal mobilization that ONE finally succeededin removing in 1958.

Bibliography

Gerber, Henry. 1929. "DieStrafbstimmungen in den 48 Staaten Amerikas und den amerikanischen Territorienfür gewisse Geschlechtsakte." Blœtter für Menschenrechte 7(8):5-11.

Gerber, Henry. 1962. "TheSociety for Human Rights-Chicago." ONE Magazine 10(9):5-10. Abridged version in Katz, 1978:584-592.

Hirschfeld, Magnus. 1914. DieHomosexualitait des Mannes und des Weibes. Berlin: Louis Marcus.

Katz, Jonathan Ned. 1978. GayAmerican History. New York: Avon.(Many of the documents are in Katz, 1978.)

Kepner collection. Jim Kepnercollected material on Gerber including many of his letters, which are now inthe ONE/ILGA collection at the University of Southern California. He alsosupplied material to Katz. Unfortunately, Kepner, who started this biography, didnot supply citations for the direct quotation in this sketch. There is oftensome conflict in dates in Gerber's recollections.

Excerpted from BeforeStonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context(Harrington Park Press, Binghamton, New York, 2002).

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Before Stonewall editor Vern L. Bullough is the author, co-author, or editor of 50 books, includingSexual Variance in Society and History,Women and Prostitution, A ShortHistory of Homosexuality, Science inthe Bedroom, and Encyclopedia of BirthControl. He was one of the founders of theCenter for Sex Research at California State University, Northridge and of thegay caucuses in the American Historical Association and the AmericanSociological Association. Bullough's long history of activism includes servingas a charter member of the original Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. •Stephen Murray, one of the co-authorsof the Henry Gerber chapter, is the author and co-author of a dozen booksincluding American Gay and Homosexualities.  Jim Kempner(1923-1997) drafted an early sketch of the Henry Gerber chapter before hisdeath. Kempner, who is the subject of another Before Stonewall chapter, helped create the first gay studies program inAmerica. "He left a legacy to the gay and lesbian cause that stretched from theearly 1950s through the entirety of his life," write Kempner's biographers.

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