Sexual Admissions: An Intersectional Analysis of Certifications and Residency at Willowbrook State School (1950–1985)

Abstract

Willowbrook State School has a significant place in the history of disability rights movement in the United States, from being one of the largest long-term care facilities for children and adults with disabilities during the 1950s–1970s, to the public and contentious legal battle to shut it down due to atrocities. Yet, historical scholarship has yet to fully account for what happened there. In long-term care facilities, sexuality is typically observed, controlled, and exploited, but at Willowbrook, sexuality was also a reason for admission. What role did sex play in resident’s admission and residency? This archival analysis of resident records selected admissions where sexuality played a factor, and then examined the influence of gender, family, race, class, and most importantly, ability, on the certification of the youth and their stay at Willowbrook. The findings show that race played a significant role in the lives of youth placed at Willowbrook, as did their impoverished and troubled family backgrounds, and their ability (often indexed by IQ). A narrative analysis of resident stories identified five main admission narratives: the youth were placed at Willowbrook because they were sexually promiscuous or “perverted,” truant, unruly, or attending remedial education classes, the parents were unable to care for the youth, the youth was delinquent, or the youth was sexually vulnerable. Extensive evidence from case files in support of these themes supported an intersectional analysis of admissions to Willowbrook as ability, sexuality, race, class, and gender interact in sometimes simple and predictable—and other times complex and surprising—ways.