Description of Study
The Tearoom Sex Study was an unethical research study conducted by Laud Humpreys about
homosexual encounters between men in public restrooms (called tearooms). The goal of
Humphreys study was to understand,” why so many men at that time were having anonymous
sexual encounter with other men in public restroom.” Because so many men had been arrested
for tearoom sex; Humphrey thought it would be of great knowledge of why men desire to engage
in this deviant behavior. (Humphrey, 1970)
Researcher/Time
This study was conducted between 1969 and 1970 and examined homosexual relationships
between men in public restrooms (in the park) know as tearoom. The researcher was Laud
Humphreys, a sociology graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis during 1969.
(Humphreys, 1970)
Participants
The participants that were used for this study involved men from various demographics and
socio-economic status. Humphreys secretly wrote down the license plate numbers of participants
in order to obtain their names and addresses. Then he waited a year and interviewed about fifty
tearooms regulars at their homes (sometimes in the presence of their wives and children) under
false pretense by saying he was administrating a social health survey. Humphreys used twelve
men from tearooms that agreed to be interviewed about their lifestyles and tearooms for the
study. The median age was thirty-four. (Humphreys, 1970)
Picture taken from: http://dossierjournal.com/blog/music/william-e-jones-tearoom
Methods
Humphreys research materials included detailed diagrams, and maps of tearooms activity he
observed. He monitored nineteen different tearooms in five parks of the city. He witnessed 120
sexual acts by acting as a look-out person or watch queen. (Humphreys, 1970).
Results
Humphreys results were fascinating and disproved commons stereo-type about tearooms. Fiftyfour percent of the subjects were married and living with their wives. Thirty-eight percent of
Humphreys subjects were clearly either bi-sexual or homosexual; most of the thirty-eight percent
were Catholic or their wives were, of the other sixty-two percent of Humphreys subject twenty-
four percent were bi-sexual, happily married, well-educated and quite successful and exemplary
members of their community. Only fourteenth percent of Humphreys subjects were members of
the gay community and were interested in primarily homosexual relationships.
Picture taken from: imagesLVC184D5.jpg