from Masters, R.E.L., ed. Patterns of Incest: A Psycho-social Study of Incest Based on Clinical and Historic Data. New York: The Julian Press, Inc., 1963. 265-273.

DONALD WEBSTER CORY

Homosexual incest

A great deal has been written, particularly since Freud, about the relationship between homosexuality and incest. In much of this literature it has been contended, by Freud and many of his followers, that one of the major factors in the genesis of homosexuality is the flight from incest. Very little, however, has been written about incestuous relations that are homosexual; that is, about overt sexual interests and/or activities between two brothers, two sisters, or between a parent and child of the same sex.

It might seem, upon first consideration, that such relationships would be unlikely to occur. Since homosexuality is the exception rather than the rule, we might expect that only rarely would two members of the same family direct their libidinal interests not only toward the same sex, but also toward each other.

Most parents, of course, are not homosexual; in fact, most people being heterosexual, and the heterosexual marrying and becoming a father or a mother much more frequently than the homosexual, the incidence of homosexual interests on the part of fathers and mothers would be reduced to a rather small number -- small, but not negligible, and certainly not zero.

Many homosexuals, furthermore, do not have siblings of the same sex in their family. Some of them may be the only child; in other cases, they may have one sibling of the other sex, or several of the other sex. The homosexual, hence, would not have an opportunity for sexual activity of a homosexual nature within his small family unit, not having a brother who would be the natural (and almost the only) reciprocating sex object.

Nevertheless, many homosexuals do have a sibling of the same sex, and most of them have a parent of the same sex. The heterosexual orientation of most of these parents (although by no means all of them) may preclude a sexual encounter. However, numerous instances of homosexuality in more than one member of a family (particularly involving two brothers) have been reported.

There is the story of Tchaikowsky, his brother, and a nephew (the nephew was not the son either of Tchaikowsky or of the homosexual brother), and there is every reason to believe that a relationship existed between the great composer and his sister's son. Kallmann's famous studies of homosexuality among twins brought forward several instances of this sexual proclivity existing in both members of a set of identical twins. Homosexuality existing in an uncle and a nephew, not necessarily accompanied by a sexual relationship, is common among those of us who travel in homosexual circles.

There are numerous instances of homosexual encounters between step-brothers, foster-brothers, or step- or foster-father and son, and, to a slighter extent, one finds examples in the corresponding female relationships.

In the well-known novel by Fritz Peters, Finistere, the step-father approaches the youthful protagonist, with a suggestion, or perhaps a demand, for a sexual favor.

Another instance is one which the writer followed with great interest. A youth of eleven who had had no previous sexual encounter of any type, and who up to that particular moment had not been aware of any sex interests directed toward either males or females, was particularly fond of a step-brother, some six or seven years his senior. One morning (it was a weekend, and neither of the two had to attend school) the younger of the two lads asked the older if he might join him in bed, and when no objection was raised, the eleven-year-old boy got into his step-brother's bed. Thereupon, the younger lad turned to the older one, placed his hand on his genitals, and started to fondle, masturbate, and experiment with the step-brother.

In this situation, the youths did not look upon each other as brothers, but as step-brothers. This did not imply, to them, less fondness; in fact each had for the other considerably more affection than. either of them felt for members of their whole blood families; it implied less closeness, less of a so-called "blood" relationship. They were not brothers, in their own eyes, no matter what the law might declare them to be.

Relationships that have grown up between uncle and nephew or, more rarely, between aunt and niece, would be difficult to define as incestuous, if for no other reason than that, in our society, an uncle-niece or aunt-nephew relationship is likewise not subsumed in the category of incest. It may or may not be so defined legally, but it is hardly thought of in this manner by the participants or the public at large. However, it often has one incest-like characteristic: namely, that it creates an intra-familial tension that usually accompanies knowledge or suspicion of incest.

To some students of sexual behavior, it might seem that, given the Freudian postulate of homosexuality as a flight from incest, it hardly would seem likely that the fleeing person would permit himself to find expression in another and perhaps even more strongly tabooed sexual act which is likewise incestuous. In other words, the male infant or child who falls in love with his mother, it is contended, finds it necessary to stop himself from lusting after and desiring the consummation of that relationship (the Oedipus complex), and in order to block out such a crime from his guilt-ridden mind he blocks out all women. The sex drive thereupon finds desire for, and gratification in, other males. Is it not illogical and self-contradictory, that such a male would structure his libidinal drive toward another incest-object who, besides being related, is also -- to add to the horror -- of his own sex? If he is fleeing from incest, why not flee from incest, rather than into the arms of incest?

Nevertheless, it is a fact that incestuous relations between two brothers do take place, and not rarely. Does this necessarily negate the Freudian concept of the genesis of homosexuality? It would seem that the flight is not from some mystical and ill-defined concept that a given society strongly forbids under the name of incest, but what is forbidden in such situations is to lust after the parent or sibling of the other sex. So strong is this prohibition that the homosexual shuts out from the area of permitted desires all members of the other sex -- not all members of the immediate family circle.

The latter would represent, in fact, the more common heterosexual adjustment to the Oedipus complex and its suppression; namely, that no member of the immediate family circle may be available for sexual desire or gratification, under pain of severe punishment. But what characterizes the homosexual's suppression of the desire for an early sex object, such as the mother, is that it is so completely concerned with this individual, and not with all members of the immediate family group, that the suppression must be of all members of her sex. Hence, one has such commonplace phenomena among homosexuals as the glorification of woman as "pure," the placing of the woman on a pedestal, the Virgin Mary complex, the abhorrence of the idea that women should be sexual, and the puritanical bias that looks upon all sex as dirty, particularly if a woman participates in it.

The writer has known several homosexuals (all males) who have had homosexual brothers, or at least brothers inclined toward participating in homosexual practices. In every case where a situation of this sort has been encountered, some instances of sexual intimacy between the brothers were admitted quite readily and unashamedly. In fact, once the subject had begun to talk about homosexual practices in which he engaged he would not find himself confronted with a burden of tremendous guilt or shame in mentioning, that he and his brother "used to fool around" or "went down on each other a couple of times."

Remarkable in such instances was the ease with which the incestuous activities were mentioned and discussed. If one can imagine a similar situation, in which heterosexually-oriented brother and sister were each indulging in, let us say, frequent and indiscriminate sexual encounters, it is hardly likely that among these encounters there would be sexual experiences with each other; and if such did take place, that either would admit it with ease and glibness. "Cock-sucker" and "mother-fucker" are among the strongest pejoratives in the English language, but no male ever carried the awful burden of having himself called a "brother-fucker."

Sometimes the appearance of homosexuality in two brothers can be traced to the induction into this practice by the older of the two, who actually teaches the younger one to become homosexual. An older male is often in a position of influence, of strength, while a younger one offers the youth and the homosexually-held image of beauty; and when the two are in close proximity, in the same home, and sometimes in the same bed, advances by the older are not rare. However, the younger may also be the aggressor, as happened in the instance of the step-brothers described earlier.

An instance of homosexuality among twins that came to this writer's attention was described by the two subjects in great detail. The twin brothers had one older sister, no other siblings; the sister was approximately two years their senior. The parents seemed to have a fairly satisfactory life together, except that the mother was strong and dominant, and was almost the sole center of the home. There was an aura of severity and strictness in the home. One did not associate with riffraff, one did not use obscene language. Religion was taught and its rituals were followed.

The twin boys shared a room together, sleeping in twin beds, while the sister had a room of her own. The boys were fond of each other "for as long as we can remember," and recall getting into each other's bed and cuddling up closely when they were no more than five or six years old. "But nothing really happened," they added.

They slept together, off and on, without conscious erotic interests. When they were twelve, in the midst of one of their frequent embraces, they each moved their hands toward the other's genitals, arid turned the filial clasping into a sexual act. They experimented with each other sexually for about two years, and then each started to experiment with other males. At the time that I saw these youths, they were in their early twenties, and neither had had an experience with a female.

The sister of the two boys married when she was twenty-one, and had two children. On one occasion, she asked one of the twins if he was homosexual; rather startled by the question, he said, in a revealing answer, "I guess I'm about the most bisexual person in the world." Admission of homosexuality seemed less difficult, in this moment of confrontation, if he could surround it with the aura of simultaneous heterosexual interest. Ignoring the pretense of bisexuality, the sister inquired, "What about Joe?"

"Ask him -- don't ask me anything about him."

"That means that he is," she said, and added, "Too bad."

At least one instance of a homosexual relationship between father and son (biologically related, not a step-father or foster-father) has been reported to the writer. It would seem, however, that such experiences are fewer than those between two brothers.

The frequency of occurrence of a homosexual relationship in a situation in which two brothers are both sexually aroused by males, or even in which one is aroused and the other is not antagonistic to the experience, would indicate that the individuals are fleeing from incest that is structured in their minds as male-and-female. But, more than that, the ability of these people to verbalize about it, to confess it openly and unashamedly, the relative freedom from guilt. in people who are otherwise obsessed with sexual guilt, would indicate that the brother-brother relationship (or even father-son) does not incite the fear, horror, and repugnance usually associated with and found in those who have internalized their culture's attitudes toward incest.

For these people, if it is homosexual, it cannot be incestuous. And because they define it in this manner, this is the way it is. Incest is not an act, as much as it is an attitude-inciting act. And if the attitude is not incited, the act is riot incestuous. This, I suggest, is the key to an understanding of what I have called, for lack of a better phrase, homosexual incest.

Editor's note

Sibling incest generally, especially when the participants are not beyond their early teens, probably is taken much more lightly than parent-child incest. An exception would be those cases where the sister is a substitute for the mother (or the brother for the father). Some sibling incest, whether hetero- or homosexual, is productive of no significant amount of conflict or guilt at all. Former participants in heterosexual sibling incest may speak as freely of their experiences as did the homosexual participants to Mr. Cory.

Nevertheless, some of the cases presented in this book provide support for Cory's thesis: that participants in homosexual incest usually think of the activity as homosexual rather than as incestuous; or as homosexual primarily, the incest aspect having only secondary importance.

In the Old Testament it is clear that father-son and brother-brother intercourse are considered to constitute incest. Our own laws also include homosexual intercourse between near-relatives within the category of incestuous acts. Needless to say, the definition of incest provided by the lawmakers of any particular time or place does not always correspond to psychological realities.

Homosexual incest in contemporary fiction is rare. A father-son incest theine is found in Paul Bowles' story "Pages From Cold Point." In that story, the son is the seducer (or perhaps would-be seducer: it is not altogether clear whether the father is seduced). Both father and son are homosexual, and it seems evident that the father is concerned about the incest aspect of the relationship.

(One recalls here the amusing bit of gossip that a publisher who rejected Lolita advised Nabokov to make a boy of his heroine -- to better the novel's chances of avoiding censorship! Had Nabokov taken that advice, the relationship between Lolita and Humbert would then, of course, have been that of step-father and step-son: perhaps legally, but not otherwise, incestuous.)

Two recent paperback novels deal with female homosexual incest: Lesbian Twins, by Willi Peters; and Lust Sisters, by Don Holliday. Neither novel deals credibly with the incest relationships. The sister-sister intercourse is merely one titillant among many provided.