NINA SABO

eT meee Come, ie

near his Bayside, Queens home.

F,
duce wnt about my pre-college life, which | would
in Havertow ilar to the lives of other youngsters growing UP
ford, where n, a community about two miles from Havet-
choir of St - y alee brother and | both sang 1n the boy's

oy Scoutin eorge’s Episcopal Church and went through
Bower Aseart rogetner. I was an Eagle Scout and received the
troop. At H rom my troop for distinguished service to the
Out for ‘oes Township Senior High School I went

atin in the and wrestling, and took third and fourth yeat
Philosoph same class as Helen Steere, the older daughter of

While ' P rofessor Douglas V. Steere.
was going through junior and senior High

Sch
ool, Ib
e
, | became aware of the sexual attractions that were

blosso 1
ming between the boys and girls in my class. I had no
f and felt wor-

Sexual f, ‘
ee
tied for lings of my own that I was aware O
SEV ;
Within 4 eral years because of their absence. Howeve!,
mo .
nth of entering Haverford, | felt a powerful

Peer AL Haverford
in the early 1950s?

by Edward Steele 54

  

homosexual infatuation for a classmate. These feelings
ave me a lot of grief because everything

people thought about homosexuality in those
days was unflattering and disturbing. It was
commonly believed that homosexuals (a) had
a mental illness; (b) were criminals; or (c) were
an abomination to God. Of the three choices, |
felt that the first made the most sense. |

At the end of my freshman yeat, I became a member of
an Institutional Services Unit sponsored by the American
Friends Service Committee. Our group, made up of students
fom Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Cheney State
Teacher’s College, lived on the Haverford campus and trav-

s to Norristown State Mental Hospital,

eled in a college bu
where we worked as attendants throughout the summer of

1951. There we had the chance to learn about the care of the
mentally ill while we provided help to overworked full-time
attendants. While at the hospital I spoke with a psychiatrist

os and was referred to a clinic at the

ity of Pennsylvania. Over a period of
alk therapy from three therapists over
al lasting a year or more. This ther-

about my sexual feelin
Hospital of the Univers
several years | received t
four intervals, each interv

apy had no effect on my sexual orientation.
ays been homosexuals on cam-

There have no doubt alw
s and faculty, but in the 0s

pus among both the student
ing me with a feeling of great

everyone was in the closet, leav
isolation. However oP one occasion, a member of the class

to graduate a year before me invited me to his house in
Philadelphia to “scudy German together.” After arriving, he
expressed a desire to have physical closeness in a subtle man-
ner that I found no way offensive. No wanting to reject him,

I pretended not to understand him, and went home after a

short while. I was not ready to explore my sexual feelings at
nt have my first sexual

that time. As things worked out, ! did
experience until I was 26.

On another occasion, I came upon th
after dark while he and another day student were in a parked
car along the lane chat runs past the astronomy observatory.

e same individual

 

2