Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places

From the time of its first publication, Tearoom Trade engendered controversy. It was also accorded an unusual amount of praise for a first book on a marginal, intentionally self-effacing population by a previously unknown sociologist. The book was quickly recognized as an important, imaginative, and useful contribution to our understanding of deviant” sexual activity. Describing impersonal, anonymous sexual encounters in public restrooms—tearooms” in the argot—the book explores the behavior of men whose closet homosexuality is kept from their families and neighbors.