In 1952, using the large correspondence he received as the author of The Homosexual in America, Cory established the "Cory Book Service," a subscription service that selected a gay-themed book each month, usually literary works of high quality.

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Cory accepted membership on the editorial board of ONE, the magazine published by the Mattachine Society of Los Angeles, and regularly contributed to the journal. He also joined such organizations as the Veterans Benevolent Association and the Mattachine Society of New York and encouraged the formation of Daughters of Bilitis chapters.

Sagarin as Academic

In 1958, Sagarin returned to college. He entered an accelerated program at Brooklyn College and completed his B. A. in the same class as his son. Then, at age 48, he entered the M. A. program in sociology, writing his thesis on "The Anatomy of Dirty Words."

Sagarin then entered New York University's Ph. D. program in sociology. He graduated in 1966, having submitted a dissertation on "Structure and Ideology in an Association of Deviants," which was in fact a study of the Mattachine Society. He accepted an assistant professorship at the Baruch College campus of the City University of New York, where he would rise through the ranks, gaining a reputation as an excellent teacher, and ultimately achieving national prominence as a specialist in deviancy.

Cory as Conservative

In the 1960s, however, Cory became one of the most conservative members of the "old guard" of the Mattachine Society, opposed to the radicalism of such activists as Frank Kameny, who were eager to launch a civil rights movement on behalf of homosexuals. He particularly opposed the rejection of the "sickness theory" of homosexuality by the new wave of homophile leaders.

In Cory's view, perhaps reinforced by his friendship with psychologist Albert Ellis, homosexuality was "a disturbance" that probably resulted from a pathological family situation. His publication of a book, co-authored with John LeRoy (pseudonym of Barry Sheer), called The Homosexual and His Society (1963), which claimed that there was no such thing as a "well-adjusted homosexual," only exacerbated the distance between his positions and those of the new activists.

In 1965, after a bitter fight for control of the Mattachine Society of New York resulted in a decisive victory by the militants, Cory left the organization in disgust. Some of that disgust he poured into the dissertation he submitted under his own name for his Ph. D.

Sagarin as Critic of the Gay Liberation Movement

Although homosexuality was not the only topic of Dr. Sagarin's academic publications, he nevertheless became a conspicuous critic of the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s, despite his continuing to pursue an active homosexual sex life, particularly with hustlers whom he would meet in Times Square and other New York City cruising sites.

In his liberal academic publications, Sagarin argued that homosexuality should be decriminalized and that the manifest injustices homosexuals suffered should be redressed. However, he continued to characterize homosexuality as pathological and homosexuals as disturbed, frequently urging them to seek therapy and to attempt to become heterosexual.

He especially attacked the new psychological and sociological studies of Evelyn Hooker, John Gagnon, and others who presented homosexuality as a natural sexual variation and homosexuals as well adapted.

At the 1974 convention of the American Sociological Society in Montreal, Sagarin, appearing on a panel entitled "Theoretical Perspectives on Homosexuality," proceeded to attack the liberationist scholarship as special pleading.

In response, Laud Humphreys, author of Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (l970), like Sagarin a married homosexual who came to academia late in life, subtly but dramatically exposed Professor Sagarin as Donald Webster Cory. Humphreys, in a carefully calculated and rehearsed gesture, repeatedly made deliberate "slips" in referring to Sagarin, calling him "Cory."

The confrontation, which reportedly ended with Sagarin slinking away in tears, led to the formation of the Sociologists' Gay Caucus.

Following his exposure as Donald Webster Cory, Sagarin withdrew from the controversies concerning homosexuality. He died of a heart attack on June 10, 1986.

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