ABSTRACT
One day in May 1967, sociology professor Lee Rainwater sat in a coffee house near the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, talking over possible dissertation topics with his graduate student, Laud Humphreys. 1 They agreed that it would have something to do with his independent study project from the semester before, homosexuality: Washington University in the 1960s was uniquely liberal, with no subject taboo. But what aspect of homosexualit y? Becoming deviant? Homophile organizations? The social structure of a homosexual bar? (Galliher, Brekhus, and Keyes 2004: 23–24).
