gary eastman studds. it is no accident, no fault of his own, on his mother's side, he is a catholic from new york and on his father's side they are southerners. he looked like a person of wealth, actually his family moved after the war. he never quite felt like he fit in with people in the upper-class surroundings. the happiest time of gerry studds's early life was when he went to school. there, he blossomed academically and developed his love for languages, learned german and french while he was there and did advanced work for a high school student. i am going to let this extend for the last part of his academic career at yale. by the time he was 17 or 18 he began to come to grips with his sexual identity. this was very painful and difficult for him for the 1950s. he was born in 1937 and i would guess the 50s where a time of real repression on this issue as well as others as well. while he was at yale, he dated women. i interview people with whom he went to school at both places, none of them had any ide