[transgendernews] [Blog/People/Commentary] [USA] Vern Leroy Bullough (1928 – 2006). Historian and sexologist.
Stephanie Stevens
21 February 2008
Vern Leroy Bullough (1928 – 2006). Historian and sexologist.
After being in the US Army, Vern Bullough studied history at the
Universities of Utah and Chicago, using GI Bill Benefits. As a
professor he taught at the Universities of Youngstown, California
State at Northridge and New York State at Buffalo. He wrote or edited
more than 50 books, many of them on the history of sex and sexuality.
He allied himself with gay causes, and was a founder of gay caucuses
in the American Historical Association and the American Sociological
Association. He wrote the policy on gay and lesbian rights in the
1960s for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern
California. He was a charter member of the original Parents, Families,
and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), which was founded in Los
Angeles. He met Virginia Prince in 1960, and continued as a friend. He
"halfway encouraged" John Brown to do transsexual surgery, as he
admits with chagrin. He was sponsored by the millionaire ftm Reed
Erickson to write Sexual Variance,1976, Homosexuality, a History,
1979, and with his wife Bonnie Bullough, The Subordinate Sex, 1974.
His Sexual Variance contains many examples of transgendered behavior
from around the world and across history.
In his Homosexuality, a History, chapter 10 is called "Cross-Dressing:
Transvestism, Transsexualism, and Homosexuality" in which only one
real transvestite is named: his friend, the avowed non-homosexual,
Virginia Prince. He also mentions the Chevalier d'Eon, Lili Elbe and
Christine Jorgensen who were not homosexual either. But only these
few. Did he not know any gay transvestites, or any transsexuals whom
he might regard as gay? Prior to 1979 when he wrote the book we could
choose from José Sarria, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson John
Breckinridge, Jimmy Donahue, Miss Destiny, Tamara Rees, Patricia
Morgan, Norma Jackson, Hedy Jo Star, Candy Darling, Minette, Rachel
Harlow, Rae Bourbon, Francis Renault, Dawn Langley Simmons, Abby
Sinclair, Angela Douglas, Perry Desmond, Lee Brewster, Liz Eden, Holly
Woodlawn, Carlotta. To be blunt about it: if Bullough did not know of
half of these people he had no right to publish on this subject.
In 1993, Vern and his wife, Bonnie, published Cross Dressing, Sex, and
Gender, specifically on transpeople and their doctors. In the chapter
"Transsexualism" he discusses (only) 6 known transsexuals: Lili Elbe
(surgery 1931), Alan Hart (1918), Roberta Cowell (1951), Michael
Dillon (1949), Christine Jorgensen (1953) and Jan Morris(1972)– none
of whom had a male partner. He does also mention Coccinelle (1958),
who had three husbands after her operation, but he puts her in the
"Drag Queens and Cross Dressing on the Stage" chapter rather than the
"Transsexualism" chapter, and omits all mention of her husbands. There
is no mention at all of April Ashley (1960) whose divorce by her
husband set such an unfortunate precedent, but then she could not be
mentioned without admitting that she had a husband. Almost all the
people that I mentioned in the previous paragraph are still apparently
unknown to the Bulloughs, as are the extra people who were in the news
in the additional 14 years. Only Jan Morris and Coccinelle
transitioned later than Jorgensen in 1953. Thus in the 40 years prior
to writing their book, the Bulloughs seem to have become aware of only
two more transsexuals, although they knew of Michael Dillon from Liz
Hodgkinson's 1989 biography rather than from the media kerfuffle in
1958. In the "Organized Transvestism" chapter, again, only his friend
Virginia Prince is mentioned, and the equally important work by Louise
Lawrence, José Sarria and Sylvia Rivera is totally ignored.
Evidently Bullough is uncomfortable with transsexuals or transvestites
who have male partners. This explains why he was unable to name any
gay transvestites or transsexuals in his 1979 book, and why Coccinelle
is put in the other chapter in the 1993 book.
And one more thing. The Bulloughs ignore completely the organizations
for female-to-males. Surely they would not omit Reed Erickson, his
former sponsor? Actually they do. But the next major ftm organizer is
Louis Sullivan. Okay, he is briefly mentioned (p306) as a female
cross-dresser who finds men's clothing erotic. They suppress the fact
that he transitioned to male, and – this fits the pattern - that he
became a man to be a gay man, a role that he tragically embraced to
the point of dying of Aids.
In his final book with Ariadne Kane, Crossing Sexual Boundaries, 2006,
Bullough's Introduction again - as we now expect - fails to mention
any transsexuals with male lovers/husbands, as does the book itself
which contains 18 mtf and 2 ftm autobiographical essays, but not a
single one in which the person has a male spouse. As Kane has said
(click the link in the previous sentence): "We tried to involve
contributors from all sectors of the gender spectrum, including
androgynes, non operative and post-operative, individuals, spouses and
close friends of 'T' people" --- and they could not find a single
transy with a male partner!!!
-------------
In his Preface to Richard Docter's biography of Virginia Prince
Bullough makes the claim – that surprisingly has been ignored in the
debate about social construction - that "there is no evidence in
Western culture of what might be called a heterosexual transvestite
consciousness before the twentieth century", and probably not before
Magnus Hirschfield coined the term in 1910. Michel Foucault is
associated with the claim that there were no homosexuals before the
term was coined in 1869, and this claim is wrongly taken to represent
the social constructionist position. The historian Rictor Norton has
written extensively against social constructionism largely by
demonstrating the many homosexuals who existed and had sex before
1869.
What a shame that Bullough made this claim only in a Preface to
someone else's book. Could someone pay attention to the claim and
either refute it or develop it.
---------
Photo of Bullough, Prince, and Docter from Docter's book.
---------
· Vern L. Bullough. Sexual Variance in Society and History. New York:
Wiley 1976.
· Vern L. Bullough. Homosexuality, a History. New York: New American
Library 1979.
· Vern L. Bullough & Bonnie Bullough. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender.
Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press 1993.
· Vern L. Bullough, Bonnie Bullough & James Elias (ed). Gender
Blending. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books 1997.
· Vern L. Bullough. "Preface" in Richard F Docter. From Man to Woman:
The Transgender Journey of Virginia Prince. Docter Press xiv, 149 pp
2004.
· J. Ari Kane-Demaios (Ariadne Kane) & Vern L. Bullough (eds) Crossing
Sexual Boundaries: Transgender Journeys, Uncharted Paths Prometheus
Books, 365 pp, 2006.
Posted by Zagria at 20:47
Labels: academic, Book Review
http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/02/vern-leroy-bullough-1928-2006.html
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