GLR September-October 2024

ESSAY

Pervert Patient Zero W ILLIAM B ENEMANN

I MAGINE YOU’RE A HOMOSEXUAL in the year 1882. You’re standing on a sidewalk in Louisville, Kentucky, in front of the office of George J. Monroe, MD. Dr. Monroe is a proctologist, and unfortunately you are in need of the good doctor’s services, though he is sure to ask you why you need to consult with him and how you got to be in the peculiar condition in which you find yourself, and you have no idea how he will respond if you tell him the gospel truth. You hesitate with your hand on the doorknob, sweating profusely, and you offer up a prayer that the proctologist will handle you with understanding and com passion. Imagine what your reaction might be if you knew that, at that very minute, Dr. George J. Monroe was sitting at his desk writing the following: “These habits are so abominable, so disgusting, so filthy, and worse than beastly, that the medical profession, from a sense of decency and respect, are loth to write about them, or even to discuss them with other physi cians.” In 1882, you might have been disheartened—or per haps amused—to learn that he then wrote: “There must be something extremely fascinating and satisfactory about this habit; for when once begun it is seldom ever givenup.” In late 19th-century America, most the fashion to publish using only initials), contributed an article to The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease titled “Perverted Sexual Instinct.” In it, they reported on the number of case stud ies on the topic that had appeared up to that point: “[W]e find the majority of the cases have been reported in German journals, two cases in French, one in Italian, but one in English, and no cases that we are aware of have been published in America.” They then proceeded to describe a patient who had come to Dr. Shaw seeking treatment, a man who might be considered the first homosexual American to have his case described in a med ical journal. By the end of the century, many more case histories of what would today be known as LGBT Americans began to appear in the literature, and while it took many more decades to complete the process, professional opinion about homosexuality began to change, however glacially. While these case histories were rare, they were sought by William Benemann is the author of Unruly Desires: American Sailors and Homosexualities in the Age of Sail, and Men in Eden: William Drum mond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. physicians shared Dr. Monroe’s revulsion at the very idea of same-sex activity, but an en lightened few noted that in Europe things were beginning to change, and they asked their fellow physicians to reconsider their loathing. In the spring of 1883 two New York doctors, J. C. Shaw and G. N. Ferris (it was

homosexuals as one of the few ways to learn about the topic. As Dr. W. L. Howard explained of his patients: “They exist in both male and female societies and clubs, and by some subtle psychic influence these perverts recognize each other the moment they come in social contact. They are well read in literature apper taining to their condition; they search for everything written re lating to sexual perversion; and many of them have devoted a life of silent study and struggle to over-come their terrible af fliction.” Most case studies presented homosexuality as a “ter rible affliction,” but they were a source of quasi-scientific data at a time when information was scarce, and it is easy to imag ine these articles being passed from hand to hand by men and women eager to gain an understanding of their condition. Not that they were all necessarily seeking a cure. Dr. G. M. Beard warned: “This class of people do not wish to get well. They are content with their lot, like the majority of opium-eaters and inebriates, and have no occasion to go to a physician; they enjoy their abnormal life, or, if they do not enjoy it, are at least not sufficiently annoyed by it, or are too ashamed of it to at tempt any treatment. There are, as I have recently learned on hair. Dark complexion. Well built. Physiognomy of an intelli gent expression. Very reticent on some points of his history.” The patient would say only that he was “engaged in mercantile business” as a clerk, and he was distressed because he felt a nearly uncontrollable attraction to the men he worked with. He had never given in to his desires, but he feared that one day he might lose his self-control. “When in the presence of men, he is tormented by constant erections of his penis and a desire to em brace the men.” The patient had forced himself to have sex with women, but after three attempts he accepted that it gave him no pleasure. He was too ashamed to discuss his problem with his personal physician, “as he must consider him a horrible crea ture, and look upon him with disgust.” Thus he had come to a different doctor, one who did not know him, and he insisted on remaining anonymous. Dr. Shaw wanted to make sure there was nothing physio logically wrong, and he asked the patient to undress for a phys ical exam. The result was the man’s utter humiliation. “At the time of examination penis is in full erection, and this patient says it is the condition of the organ whenever he is near men.” The inquiry, great numbers of such cases in the city of New York.” It was in New York City in the spring of 1880 that a man who refused to give his name or address came to the of fice of Dr. G. N. Shaw, and unknowingly be came Pervert Patient Zero. As described in the article by Shaw and Ferris: “A German, aged thirty-five years. Height, about five feet four inches. Weight, about one hundred and forty pounds. Black

In late 19th century America, most physicians expressed revulsion at same sexac ti vity, but an enlightened few noted that in Europe things were beginning to change.

TheG & LR

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