Evelyn Hooker; Her Study Fueled Gay Liberation
Evelyn Hooker, the psychologist whose 1950s research showing that homosexuality is not a mental illness helped fuel gay liberation, has died. She was 89.
Hooker, who has been called “the Rosa Parks of the gay rights movement” by historian Eric Marcus, died Monday at her home in Santa Monica.
In a highly controversial report in 1957 called “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual,” Hooker challenged then-prevailing beliefs about homosexuality. Her landmark study of gay men showed that homosexuals were not inherently abnormal and that there was no difference between the pathologies of homosexual and heterosexual men.
Several years later the American Psychiatric Assn. finally agreed, and in 1973 struck homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders. The American Psychological Assn. followed suit in 1975. In 1992, group awarded Hooker its lifetime achievement award, its highest honor.
Hooker was the subject of a documentary film, “Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker,” produced by David Haugland in 1992. The film was nominated for an Academy Award.
“Gives a kind of finality to one’s life, doesn’t it?” she told The Times, pleased with the documentary. “I don’t exactly say my last goodbye to the world on film, but it does sum me up like nothing else.”
She politely but consistently shredded the hero’s mantle that gays and lesbians tried to wrap her in, claiming that “curiosity and empathy” rather than special courage compelled her to do her famous study. Her work began when she befriended Sam From, a gay man who attended one of her psychology classes at UCLA. He persuaded her to study non-pathological homosexuals.
The novel concept and the initial research set her on a new professional course. She continued her work with homosexuals for the remainder of her career and for many years headed the National Institute of Mental Health’s Task Force on Homosexuality.
One of her most lasting contributions, which garnered her several major awards, was to legitimize homosexuality as a field of study. The University of Chicago honored her by establishing the Evelyn Hooker Center for the Mental Health of Gays & Lesbians. The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Center gave her its highest honor in 1989.
Born Evelyn Gentry in North Platte, Neb., she grew up in Colorado and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at the University of Colorado. Her doctorate was from Johns Hopkins University.
Hooker taught psychology at UCLA from 1939 to 1970, and then continued her private practice for another decade.
The widow of UCLA English literature professor Edward Hooker, she is survived by two sisters, Mildred Haugh of Downey, and Myrtle Fisher, who lives in Colorado.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20 at the UCLA Faculty Center.
The family has asked that memorial donations be made to Amnesty International, 322 8th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10001; the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. 36104, or the American Psychological Foundation, 750 1st St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002.