Tripp had trained with Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, and who wrote an influential 1975 book on homosexuality, The Homosexual Matrix, which sold an astounding 500,000 copies (a lot for a scholarly book).

Among the many revelations in Tripp's book was that during World War II, the Federal Bureau of Investigation operated a male bordello in New York City staffed with homosexual agents, who were charged with the task of extracting information from foreign sailors.

He died in Nyack, NY of cancer at age 83.