John Fryer

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Fryer was born in Winchester, Kentucky, to Katherine Zempter Fryer and Ercel Ray Fryer. Displaying remarkable academic prowess, he was already attending second grade by the age of five. Graduating from high school at the age of 15, he swiftly earned a bachelor's degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was an active member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. In 1962, he attained his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, followed by a medical internship at Ohio State University. His psychiatric residency commenced at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, but he withdrew from it upon the advice of a psychoanalyst due to depressions, likely stemming from the need to conceal his homosexuality. He later criticized the Menninger Foundation for its considerable homophobia. Relocating to Philadelphia, he pursued a residency at the University of Pennsylvania, but faced discrimination due to his sexual orientation, leading him to complete his residency at Norristown State Hospital in 1967. In the mid-1960s, Fryer started getting referrals from Alfred A. Gross, who was the Executive Secretary of the George W. Henry Foundation. Established in 1948 by Gross and Henry, the foundation aimed to assist individuals "who by reason of sexual deviation are in trouble with themselves, the law, or society." Fryer was tasked with treating homosexuals entangled in legal issues and providing court testimony on their behalf. In 1967, Fryer became a member of the medical faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia. By January 1969, he held the position of instructor in psychiatry at the institution. Engaging in community health initiatives in North Philadelphia, he played a pivotal role in the Health Care and Human Values Task Force. Utilizing a $5,000 grant, he established a group named "Ars Moriendi" to address issues surrounding professional responses to death and dying. This initiative eventually evolved into the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.

In Their Own Story

Fryer was the first gay American psychiatrist to speak publicly about his sexuality at a time when homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness, a sociopathic personality disturbance according to the second edition of the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II), published in 1968. In 1970, a protest at an APA event in San Francisco on aversion therapy, the message of which, according to lesbian activist Barbara Gittings, was "Stop talking about us and starting talking with us," earned gay and lesbian activists a voice in the association. The next year at the 1971 convention in Washington, Gittings organized a panel discussion on "Lifestyles of Non-patient Homosexuals," which was chaired by gay Harvard University astronomer Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, who previously had lost a job with the federal government due to his homosexuality. In a planned protest, members of the APA Gay Liberation and the Radical Caucus seized the microphone. Kameny denounced the APA "oppression" of homosexuals by psychiatry, calling it "the enemy incarnate." This protest led to a meeting the next year, at the association's 1972 annual meeting, on homosexuality and mental illness. Entitled "Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to the Homosexual?; A Dialogue," it included Kameny and Gittings on the panel. Gittings' partner, Kay Lahusen, had noted that the panel included homosexuals who were not psychiatrists, and psychiatrists who were not homosexuals. No homosexuals, however, were psychiatrists, so Gittings set out to find one who would be willing to be a panel member. After numerous contacts, she was unable to find a gay psychiatrist who would speak, so she had decided that she would read letters from gay psychiatrists without revealing their names. She then contacted Fryer and convinced him to appear. Later, Fryer said that the recent death of his father was one factor in his decision to accept the invitation, but his experiences at losing positions because of his homosexuality were the reasons that he did so, only after Gittings suggested that he could be disguised. Listed only as "Dr. H. Anonymous" (later expanded to "Dr. Henry Anonymous"), Fryer appeared on stage wearing a rubber joke-shop face mask – that sometimes was described as a mask of Richard M. Nixon, but which probably was altered from its original state – a wig, and a baggy tuxedo, and he spoke through a microphone that distorted his voice. In 2002, Dr. Jack Drescher, then the head of the APA Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Issues pointed out "[t]he irony ... that an openly homosexual psychiatrist had to wear a mask to protect his career. So the fact that someone would get up on stage, even in disguise, at the risk of professional denunciation or loss of job, it was not a small thing. Even in disguise, it was a very, very brave thing to do." At the time of his speaking, Fryer was on the faculty of Temple University, but did not have the security of tenure, so he was in real danger of losing his position if he had been identified – he had already lost a residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and was later forced to leave a position on the staff of Friends Hospital because of his flamboyance. According to Fryer, he found it to be ironic that the Friends administrator who had told him, "If you were gay and not flamboyant, we would keep you. If you were flamboyant and not gay we would keep you. But since you are both gay and flamboyant, we cannot keep you" was in the front row at his 1972 appearance as Dr. Anonymous and never realized that "Anonymous" was Fryer. Fryer's speech began: "I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist," and he went on to describe the lives of the many gay psychiatrists in the APA who had to hide their sexuality from their colleagues for fear of discrimination, as well as from fellow homosexuals owing to the disdain in which the psychiatric profession was held among the gay community. Fryer's speech suggested ways in which gay psychiatrists could subtly and "creatively" challenge prejudice in their profession without disclosing their sexuality, and how they could help gay patients adjust to a society that considered their sexual preferences a sign of psychopathology. Reportedly, there were more than 100 gay psychiatrists at the convention. At least one other panelist agreed with Fryer and Kameny that the stance of the psychiatric establishment toward homosexuality was wrong. The vice president of the APA at the time and later president, Dr. Judd Marmor, said: "I must concede that psychiatry is prejudiced as has been charged. Psychiatric mores reflect the predominant social mores of the culture." He later wrote: "In a democratic society we recognize the rights of such individuals to have widely divergent religious preferences, as long as they do not attempt to force their beliefs on others who do not share them. Our attitudes toward divergent sexual preferences, however, are quite different, obviously because moral values – couched in 'medical' and 'scientific' rationalizations – are involved." Also appearing on the panel were Dr. Kent Robinson, from Shepherd Pratt Psychiatric Hospital, and Robert Seidenberg. After the panel discussion, Fryer appeared for two hours on a local radio talk show as "Dr. Anonymous" with his voice disguised. Fryer later said it was broadcast from one of the gay bars in the area. Although some of his colleagues knew who he was, at the time of his speech and later, Fryer did not formally acknowledge having been "Dr. Anonymous" until the 1994 APA convention in Philadelphia. Homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973, a year after Fryer's speech – leading the now-defunct Philadelphia Bulletin to print the headline "Homosexuals gain instant cure" – and Fryer's speech has been cited as a key factor in persuading the psychiatric community to reach this decision. Gittings later said of it: "His speech shook up psychiatry. He was the right person at the right time." Fryer later wrote in a 1985 newsletter of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists, that it was "something that had to be done" and "the central event in my career... I had been thrown out of a residency because I was gay. I lost a job because I was gay... It had to be said, but I couldn't do it as me... I was not yet full time on the [Temple] faculty. I am now tenured, and tenured by a chairman who knows I'm gay. That's how things have changed."

Reader's Guide

Fryer became a professor at Temple, both of psychiatry, and of family and community medicine. He specialized in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction as well as in death and bereavement. Later in his career, he began treating gay men with AIDS.

Did You Know?

• Fryer was already attending second grade by the age of five and graduated from high school at age 15.
• He earned his bachelor's degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was an active member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
• Fryer's 1972 speech at the APA conference was delivered while he wore a rubber joke-shop face mask, a wig, and a baggy tuxedo, and he spoke through a microphone that distorted his voice.
• The administrator who fired Fryer from Friends Hospital for being 'both gay and flamboyant' sat in the front row at his 1972 appearance as Dr. Anonymous and never realized 'Anonymous' was Fryer.
• Fryer did not formally acknowledge having been 'Dr. Anonymous' until the 1994 APA convention in Philadelphia.