Frank Robert Wake was a former professor at Carleton University who was involved in secret Cold War-era research targeting queer people. He was chair of the Psychology Department at the time and was infamously known for his “fruit machine”, a “battery of psychological tests, including techniques to measure a person’s output of sweat and detect how a subject’s pupils responded to certain words or images of naked men and women.” Obviously this “research” led nowhere, but now two LGBTQ+ scholars at the university – Ryan Conrad and Alexander McClelland – are investigating Wake’s role in this federal government program that sought to identify individuals suspected of being homosexual, part of the broader Canadian “LGBT Purge” and gay hysteria of 1950s and 1960s that lasted through to the 1980s. They argue that although Wake’s work was conducted under government contracts and kept hidden from the university, his activities cannot be separated from his prominent position within the institution. The researchers are seeking to reconstruct a fuller account of his influential academic career at Carleton. Their investigation comes more than a decade after the university issued a very flaccid apology for Wake’s involvement in the anti-gay research program. Professors Conrad and McClelland contend that understanding and publicly acknowledging this history is essential for addressing past harms and strengthening support for contemporary LGBTQ+ students and researchers.
And if you’re so inclined, dear sexual subjects, check out this trailer for a documentary that was made about this slice of queer Canadian history:
