The Pathos of the Closet and the Generations: Gay Professors and Their Students During and Post Gay Liberation in the United States

Abstract

This article focuses on gay professor–student relationships in the United States, during and post gay liberation. Exploring personal writings, student periodicals, and academic documents between the late 1960s and the 1990s, I argue that interactions between gay professors and their students illuminate an ambiguous affectionate relationship wherein the closeness was based just as much on different generational sensibilities as the individuals themselves. Further, I show that these relationships suggest a therapeutic potential to education through the articulation of personal knowledge in the classroom, one that was increasingly open to challenge in the 1980s and 1990s.

KEYWORDS:

• professor–student relationship
• gay liberation
• therapeutic culture
• student revolt
• in loco parentis
• new right
• sexual harassment
• closet
• coming out
• culture wars