Talk:Secret Court of 1920

A fact from Secret Court of 1920 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 19 December 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in 1920 a Secret Court, headed by university President Abbott Lawrence Lowell and the acting Dean, was convened at Harvard University to rid the school of homosexuals, resulting in nine expulsions?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/December.

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Untitled

The wording 'led astray by homosexuals' is a little fishy, so I changed it. --99.250.177.248 (talk) 23:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This page needs a section for Ernest Weeks Roberts --I will add one shortly. I'm also thinking of adding a real background section: the gay scene on campus and in boston: restaurants, etc. Maybe the list of people should include participants, not just those punished, like a proper entry for Dreyfus instead of the separate page he has now.

And I've been trying to make the language a bit more neutral vs. Wright's book, which I find over the top in its language (vendetta, implacable), its guessing about motives, and invented scene painting. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 02:18, 17 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rewrite and expansion, Dec. 30, 2009

I've tried to expand this entry to report the incident fully. Just a few points: Wright's book makes things up so it needs to be read carefully. He makes up entire conversations. He also (I think obviously) misreads plain evidence. In many ways I agree with his overall conception of what happened. It's just that he isn't capable of staying with the evidence. I'd be happy to discuss any of these issues and more if someone is interested. Most noetworthy, I think, is his mistaken contention that Harvard hounded Lumbard in the 1950s. In others cases the two accounts we have just tell us different things -- I've done what I can with those "disputes." Not fun really -- just two sources and one just makes me want to scream. What we need is a scholarly account, which Wright's work may unfortunately have pre-empted.

NPOV is of course a tough issue. I'm sure upon reflection that I'd do some re-writing.

A few other details. I've always hated the fact that the former entry was illustrated with the portrait of Lowell. This isn't Lowell's story. I've substituted a few different images (including a different one of Lowell). I'll add a pic of Perkins Hall after I next go to Cambridge, probably next week.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all! Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 20:51, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merger

There is an entry for Harry Dreyfus, but I think Harry Dreyfus is not notable except for his role in the Secret Court of 1920. The fact that his father owned a hotel that was destroyed in a (locally) famous fire doesn't count for much. I think the Harry Dreyfus entry should be merged into the Secret Court of 1920. The latter already has a short bio for Harry Dreyfus. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 04:10, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I see that that merge has already been completed. I totally agree. — Becksguy (talk) 10:16, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Reassessment

Reassessed as Class B for the WP:WikiProject LGBT studies/Assessment. The article was downgraded from B to C in July 2008, but the article has been more than significantly expanded since then (from roughly 12K to 57K bytes). Comparing this article with the LGBT assessment criteria, specifically the example of a C class article, Transwoman, and carefully reviewing the C class quality scale criteria, easily convinces me that Secret Court is significantly better on the scale than the C class example. Also, comparing this article with the quality scale criteria for B class articles, and comparing this article with the B class example, Gay icon, also convinces me that this article is comparable to B class. Therefore I've reapplied the B class assessment. Note that this article has been listed as a peer review article since December 2009 without any further participation. So I'm being bold and jumping in. By all means, please lets discuss. — Becksguy (talk) 09:46, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]