Warren Blumenfeld discusses various historical theories about the origins and nature of homosexuality and gender diversity. He describes theories that attributed homosexuality to things like eating certain foods, ghost or worm possession, hormonal imbalances, inherited traits, or as a sign of societal decadence. Blumenfeld also discusses the origins of the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual" and notes various flawed scientific theories and nonscientific beliefs about LGBTQ identities over time.

1. RECOVERING THE PAST:
A “WESTERN” LESBIAN, GAY,
BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER,
INTERSEX & QUEER HISTORY:
PART THREE
Warren J. Blumenfeld
warrenblumenfeld@gmail.com

2. •Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is
available to come to your campus
or community organization.
•Contact:
warrenblumenfeld@gmail.com

3. “An essential element of liberty is the
freedom to define oneself.”
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

4. Social
Construction
of
Reality

5. • Social Construction of Reality
• Personal Reflections
• Creation Story
• Nutrition
• Ghostly Invasion; Anal Worm Invasion
• “Homosexual” & “Heterosexual”
• “Altruistic Gene”
• Hormonal Imbalance
• Inherited
• Sign of Decadence
• Criminality (and/or Sin)
• Biological Markers
• Psychological Theories
• Defining Ourselves
• On the Social Construction of Identities
THE FLOW

6. Open, Diverse, Varied, Assorted, Multiple,
Wide-Ranging, Extensive, Inclusive, Far-Reaching,
All-Embracing, Comprehensive, Full, Broad
REALITY

7. • Special Ability to Categorize
• Benefits
• Limitations
THE HUMAN BRAIN

8. + --
GOOD BAD
RIGHT (French - droit/adroit,
Latin - dexter/dexterous)
LEFT (French - gauche,
Latin - sinister)
UP DOWN
PASS FAIL
US THEM
IN-GROUP OUT-GROUP (Other)
MALE / MASCULINE FEMALE / FEMININE
HETEROSEXUAL HOMOSEXUAL
CISGENDER TRANSGENDER
CULTURAL LINGUISTIC GRID

9. HUMAN PERCEPTIONS

10. HUMAN PERCEPTIONS
• The fish are the last to see or even feel the
water around them because it is so
pervasive, so taken for granted, so
“normal.”
• One needs to look outside the water to
understand and perceive how what we
know and how we know it is socially
constructed.

11. HUMAN PERCEPTIONS

12. HUMAN PERCEPTIONS
• What did you see in the previous slide?
• A mammal? A fish? A bird? A frog?
• Now look at it from a different perspective.
• Did you see anything different?
• If so, what?

13. Personal
Reflections

14. • I was born in 1947 in New
York City
• A very conservative time
• A time when difference
of any sort was
suspected and not
tolerated
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

15. • A time when a young and brash Senator from
Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, sternly warned
that Communists corrupt peoples’ minds &
homosexuals corrupt peoples’ bodies.
• He worked to have suspected Communists &
homosexuals fired from their government jobs.

16. • When I was about 18
months old, my parents
thought that I might be
homosexual.
• Because I was quiet, liked to
stay by myself, and
because I was
“effeminate,” as my mother
told me.
• I didn’t like to play with toys
“appropriate” for little boys.

17. • When I was 4-years-old lasting
until I was 13, my parents
arranged that I see a child
psychologist
• Twice a week
• They hoped that seeing the
doctor would prevent me
from growing up to be gay.

18. • In elementary school and junior
high school, many of the other
boys teased and bullied me.
• Many days, I returned home
injured from a fight and from
the constant taunting.
• In my sessions with the doctor,
he advised me about ways to
behave like the other boys:
playing sports, talking and
walking differently – ways that
felt very uncomfortable to me.

19. • While in high school (1962-1965), I had only a few
friends.
• I rarely went out on dates or to school dances.
• I wanted to date some of the other boys, but it
was a time before visibility in society or in the
media of people like me.

20. Creation
Story

21. • Creation Story of Three Sexes
• Male (descended from the Sun)
• Female (descended from the Earth)
• Hermaphrodite (half male and half female)
• They All Had:
• Rounded Backs and Sides
• Four Arms, Four Legs
• One Head on Cylindrical Neck
• One Face on one side of Head
• A Second Face on other side of Head
PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM

22. • King of the gods, Zeus
• Wanted to weaken them, but not destroy
them
• Split them in two
• They desired to reunite with their missing half.
• Man with Woman
• Woman with Woman
• Man with Man
PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM

23. Nutrition

24. • In Sikkim Himalayas
• Homosexuality thought
caused by eating the
flesh of an uncastrated pig.
RONGS

25. Gur Hasidim banned soy products, like veggie hot dogs, from its yeshivas because
rabbis fear hormones in soy foods will cause the bodies of young male teen
students to become feminine in appearance and thereby cause their rabbis and
older students to become sexually aroused seeing them, leading to male
homosexual sex.
GUR HASIDIM
The Gur rebbe,
Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh
Alter

26. JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG
• Argued for sexual abstinence: “…neither
the plague, nor war, nor small-pox, nor
similar diseases, have produced results
as disastrous to humanity as the
pernicious habit of onanism
[masturbation – from biblical Onan].”
• Believed whole grains in daily diet would
eliminate desire to masturbate.
• Created Corn Flakes for this purpose
• Founded Kellogg Cereals

27. Ghostly
Invasion

28. • Article titled “Symptoms of Ghost Affecting or Possessing a Person,” Spiritual
Science Research Foundation claims that 85 percent of gay and lesbian people
are possessed by ghostly entities.
• “The main reason behind the gay orientation of some men is that they are
possessed by female ghosts. It is the female ghost in them that is attracted to
other men.”
• Conversely, lesbianism is the result of women who suffer “the presence of male
ghosts in them.”
• “The ghost’s consciousness overpowers the person’s normal behavior to produce
the homosexual attraction. Spiritual research has shown that the cause for
homosexual preferences lie predominantly in the spiritual realm.”
SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
RESEARCH
FOUNDATION

29. Anal Worm
Invasion

30. • Dr. Mariam Al-Sohel from Kuwait, in an interview she gave to Scope TV, says her
suppository antidote is based off Islamic “prophetic medicine.”
“I discovered therapeutic suppositories that curb the sexual urges of boys of the
third gender as well as the fourth gender, which is butch lesbians. They have
excessive sexual urges,” she told the host. “The sexual urge develops when a person
is sexually attacked, and afterward it persists because there is an anal worm that
feeds on semen,” she claimed. “This is science, and there is nothing to be ashamed
of.”
Al-Sohel says her “medicine” works by “exterminating the worm that feeds on the
semen.” Asked how the suppository works for lesbians, she answered. “The
ingredients [for the cure] are the same (for both sexes) but I made them into
different colors.”
ANAL WORM INVASION

31. “Homosexual”
&
“Heterosexual”

32.  Hanover lawyer
 “Grandfather of Gay
Liberation”
 1862, “Urning”
 People with same-sex
attractions
 Plato’s Symposium,
 Love between two men
 Heavenly Muse Urania.
KARL HEINRICH ULRICHS
“Third Sex Theory”

33.  Austrian-born journalist & human
rights activist
 1869, coined terms “Homosexual” &
“Heterosexual”
 Tried to convince legal & scientific
professions in Prussia
 Same-sex attractions, though not
norm, are innate & should not be
legally penalized
 He failed to convince
KARL-MARIA KERTBENY
(A.K.A. KAROLY MARIA BENKERT)

34. “Altruistic
Gene”

35. • Theory that behavior of a species is
connected to its biological makeup
• Dr. E. O. Wilson
• Homosexuality may serve twofold natural
biological function:
• Built-in inhibitor of excessive population growth
• Caretakers and nurturers for other members of
society
• “Altruistic Gene”
SOCIOBIOLOGY

36. Hormonal
Theories

37. HORMONAL THEORIES
• Dr. Havelock Ellis
• English Sex Researcher
• “Defender” of Homosexuality
• Wife was Bisexual
• Homosexuality hormonal in origin,
inborn, “anomaly” like color blindness
• Referred to homosexuals as “inverts”
and homosexuality as “inversion”
• They invert “normal” sexuality.

38. • Carl Peter Jensen
• Alias “Carl Vaernet”
• SS Nazi Doctor
• Hormonal experiments on men
• Buchenwald Concentration Camp
• Some men castrated first
• Men’s groin, male hormone
implanted
• Looked like briquette
• To “cure” homosexuality
• Most died
NAZI HORMONAL EXPERIMENTS

39. Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim
forcibly castrated. Survived. After war,
returned home in Germany.
NAZI HORMONAL EXPERIMENTS

40. Inherited

41. • Adolph Hitler
• Heinrich Himmler
• Homosexuality caused by having
a Jewish Ancestor
• Homosexuality Inherited
JUDAISM CAUSES
HOMOSEXUALITY

42. Sign of
Decadence

43. • Heinrich Himmler
• Gestapo chief (German secret
police)
• Architect anti-homosexual
campaign
• Male homosexuals “like
women”
• Cannot fight in German war
effort
DECADENCE

44. • Homosexual (males) lower German birth rate
• Homosexuals endanger & corrupt youth
• Possible epidemic spread & “race” pollution
• Homosexuals “potential oppositionists” &
enemy of respectable society
• Sexual relations between people of same sex
impairs their “sense of shame,” & undermines
morality & “decline of social community”
• “Aryan” lesbians can still produce “Aryan”
children
NAZI “PHILOSOPHY” ON
HOMOSEXUALITY

45. • Joseph Stalin re-criminalized Homosexuality in the Soviet
Union in 1933
• He viewed it as “Fascist Decadence.”
DECADENCE

46. • Fidel Castro
• Post-Revolutionary Cuba
• Homosexuality “a product of
bourgeois Capitalist decadence”
• Homosexuals are
“Counterrevolutionary”
• And “Agents of Imperialism”
• Forcefully Interned many in
“work (concentration) camps”
DECADENCE

47. • People’s Republic of China established, 1949
• Chinese Communist Party declared
homosexuality a sign of Bourgeois Decadence
DECADENCE

48. • Vladimir Putin of Russia views Homosexuality as
sign of American & Western “feminization” and
decadence
• Putin sees himself as savior against decadence
DECADENCE

49. • Robert Mugabe, president-for life, Zimbabwe
• Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, president, Uganda.
• Homosexuality is “a decadent culture …
being passed by Western nations.”
DECADENCE
Robert Mugabe Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

50. • Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry, former chief
psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and member of faculty
at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
• Trans people are “counterfeits,” “impersonators,”
“confused” and “mad.”
• His fake science often used by anti-trans activists in
court cases to defeat trans protection laws and pass
discriminatory legislation against trans people.
DECADENCE

51. • Kevin Swanson, Colorado pastor.
• “The state has an agenda with your children,” he
warned on his “Generations” radio show May 2017.
• “The goals of the educational program for your kids in
the public schools, the goals of the world for your
children is that your kids be transgendered and
communist by 20 years of age.”
DECADENCE

52. Criminality
(and/or Sin)

53. • Richard von Krafft-Ebing
• 19th-century Austrian sex
researcher
• Wrote, Psychopathia Sexualis
• Sex “nauseous disease”
• Homosexuality: sign of
“degeneration,” & product of vice
CRIMINALITY

55. • Fear, intimidation, and several
executions of gay males
reported in Iran under
Ahmadinejad.
• “Iranian human rights
campaigners estimate that
4000+ gay men have been
executed since the Islamic
revolution of 1979.”
IRAN
Ayez Marhoni (18),
Mahmoud Asgari (16)
Hanged for the “crime” of
homosexuality, July 19, 2005

56. UGANDA
• Anti-Homosexual Law, 2014
• Legislative proposal broadening criminalization of same-
sex relations
• Created by influence of U.S. evangelicals going to
Uganda
• “The offense of homosexuality”: offender to receive
life imprisonment

57. INDIA
• Police in Bangalore,
India, arrested more
than 150 hijras and
forced them into a
concentration
camp
• November 2014

58. LAWRENCE V. TEXAS (2003)
"The petitioners are
entitled to respect for
their private lives. The
state cannot demean
their existence or control
their destiny by making
their private sexual
conduct a crime.“
John Geddes Lawrence
& Tyron Garner
U.S. Supreme Court Overturned Remaining Anti-
Sodomy Laws

59. • Bryan J. Fisher,
preacher, anti-LGBT
activist, host of radio
program for
American Family
Association,
• “Worst example of
cultural
appropriation
ever: LGBTs stole
the rainbow from
God. It's his. He
invented it. Gen.
9:11-17. Give it
back.” April 2017
THIEVES STOLE THE RAINBOW
Genesis 9:11-17English Standard Version (ESV)
11 I establish my covenant with you, that never
again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the
flood, and never again shall there be a flood to
destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign
of the covenant that I make between me and you
and every living creature that is with you, for all
future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the
cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant
between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds
over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant that is between me
and you and every living creature of all flesh. And
the waters shall never again become a flood to
destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I
will see it and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh
that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is
the sign of the covenant that I have established
between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

60. • Laura Ingraham on Fox News interviewed Dr. Paul Nathanson
when they both considered that transgender people are
secretly trying to destroy humanity and create a new
“species” of cyborgs.
DESTRUCTION OF HUMANITY

61. Sin

62. THOMAS AQUINAS
• Dominican scholar
• Born 1225
• Early proponent of
“natural law”
• Morality based on
constraints of human
nature.

63. THOMAS AQUINAS
• Aquinas believed that
same-sex sexuality (and
any sexual act not
intended for procreation,
including masturbation)
were vices against nature,
which violated the will of
God.
• Against “natural law”

64. CATHOLIC CATECHISM
1997: #2357 “…Basing itself on Sacred Scripture,
which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave
depravity, tradition has always declared that
‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’
They are contrary to the natural law. They close
the sexual act to the gift of life [reproduction].
They do not proceed from a genuine affective
and sexual complementarity. Under no
circumstances can they be approved.”

65. • Saving humanity from homosexual or
transgender expression was just as
important as saving the rainforest
from destruction.
• He said that humanity needed to
"listen to the language of creation"
to understand the intended roles of
man and woman. He compared
behavior beyond traditional
heterosexual relations as "a
destruction of God's work."
POPE BENEDICT
NOVEMBER 21, 2008

66. SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
“Resolution on Homosexuality and the United States Military” 2010
“RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern
Baptist Convention…affirm the Bible’s declaration
that homosexual behavior is intrinsically disordered
and sinful, and we also affirm the Bible’s promise of
forgiveness, change, and eternal life to all sinners
(including those engaged in homosexual sin) who
repent of sin and trust in the saving power of Jesus
Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).”

67. EVANGELICAL COVENANT CHURCH
“Resolution on Sexuality” adopted 1996:
“We human beings misuse God’s creation of sexuality and
distort its role in our lives. In I Corinthians 6:9-10 and Romans
1:24-27, Scripture succinctly declares this sin and God’s
judgment on it. Throughout the Scriptures we see how sin in
sexual relationships damages relationship with God and
others. We live in a society characterized by imperfect and
sinful sexual relationships of many kinds….Evangelical
Covenant Church resolution to care for persons involved in
sexual sins such as adultery, homosexual behavior, and
promiscuity compassionately recognizing the potential of
these sins to take the form of addiction.”

68. CATHOLIC CHURCH
• Joan of Arc
• Peasant, Domremy, Lorraine
Province, French territory
• Age 17, 1429, talked to
Prince Charles, Heir to throne
• Led army, 10,000 peasants to
purge English from French
land
• Stated God advised her to
dress in so-called “men’s”
clothing

69. CATHOLIC CHURCH
• Joan asserted her cross- dressing a
religious duty & higher than Church
authority
• “For nothing in the world will I swear
not to arm myself and put on a
man’s dress.”
• Catholic Inquisitors condemn her to
death for wearing “men’s” clothing
and armor
• Burned at the stake as heretic,
1431.

70. CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON TRANS IDENTITIES
• Alex Salinas
• 21-year-old transman, Cadiz, Spain
• Applied, Godparent, of nephew
• Vatican denied request.

71. • Catholic Church: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Transgender status "reveals in a public way an attitude
opposite to the moral imperative of solving the problem
of sexual identity according to the truth of one's own
sexuality. Therefore it is evident that this person does not
possess the requirement of leading a life according to
the faith and in the position of godfather and is
therefore unable to be admitted to the position of
godfather or godmother."

72. • Handbook of Instructions
• “Homosexual behavior violates the
commandments of God, is contrary to the
purposes of human sexuality, distorts loving
relationships, and deprives people of the
blessings that can be found in family life and in
the saving ordinances of the gospel. Those who
persist in such behavior or who influence others
to do so are subject to Church discipline.
Homosexual behavior can be forgiven through
sincere repentance.”
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
MORMONS

73. • Guidebook: Homosexuality, second edition, 1981
• Cause, Effect, or Both?
• “When individuals of the same sex masturbate
together, it is a homosexual act.”
• But even masturbating alone is linked to being gay.
• “Self-masturbation is almost universal among those
who engage in homosexual behavior.”
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
MORMONS

74. LOU SHELDON
• Leader
• Family Values Coalition
• In a fundraising letter:
“Gays and lesbians live
perverted, twisted lives
that feed upon the
unsuspecting and the
innocent, like our
children. They want your
children.”

75. ANITA BRYANT
• Former beauty queen &
Florida Orange Juice
Commission spokesperson,
• “Save Our Children”
campaign,
• Succeeded overturning gay-
rights ordinance,
• Dade Country, Florida, 1977,
• Reinstated, 1998

76. LAURA SCHLESSINGER
Former, Radio Talk Show Host
"I'm sorry, hear it one more time perfectly clearly: If you're gay
or a lesbian, it's a biological error that inhibits you from relating
normally to the opposite sex.”
"A huge portion of the male homosexual populace is
predatory on young boys.“

77. • Milo Yiannopoulos, white nationalist, former editor Breitbart News
• Labels trans people as suffering from a “psychiatric disorder,”
“confused,” and as predators.
• “I makes no apologies for protecting women and children
from men who are confused about their sexual identity.”
TRANS PEOPLE AS SICK PREDATORS

78. “THE GAY AGENDA”
• Film
• Producer: Springs of
Life Church, early
1990s
• Purpose: Influence
reversal of LGBT
equality ordinances

79. “THE GAY AGENDA”
Film stated:
• “17% of homosexual men
consume human feces for
erotic thrills,”
• “28% of homosexual men
engage in sodomy with more
than one thousand partners,”
• “They spread diseases that
imperil the entire society.”

80. NEWT GINGRICH
• Former Speaker
• U.S. House of Representatives
"I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that
wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use
violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the
government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very
dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional
religion.”

81. Child & Family Research Institute
• Ultra-Conservative “Christian” U.S. Organization
• LGBT Hate Group (according to
Southern Poverty Law Center)
• Counterfeit and false “research”
• Disregarded by larger scientific community
• “Homosexuals are now more than non-productive
‘sexual bums.’ They are recruiting others, forming
communities, beginning to mock and undermine the old
pieties of loyalty to family, country, and God. They have
redefined ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and view with contempt the
idea that honest work and sex within marriage are
communal acts necessary for human survival.”
CRIMINALITY (AND/OR SIN)

82. • Homosexuality Associated with Criminality
• “homosexuals were about twice as likely to have been
arrested for a non-sexual crime and about 8 times
more apt to have been arrested for a sexual crime;”
• “homosexuals were about twice as apt to have been
convicted of a sexual crime and about twice as likely
to have been jailed for a crime;”
• “homosexuals were about three times more likely to
admit to having made an obscene phone call;” and
• “homosexuals were about 50% more apt to claim that
they had recently shoplifted, cheated on their income
tax, or not been caught for a crime.”
Child & Family Research Institute
CRIMINALITY

83. Biological
Markers

84. Medical Model
• Mental Illness
• Physical
Abnormality
• Sickness
• Disease
• Disorder
• Disability
• Condition
Wellness Model
• Mental Health
• No Physical
Abnormality
• Personal Identity
• Difference
• Variation
• Normal for Us
• What’s the big
whoop?
LENSES OF PERCEPTION:
LGBTQ IDENTITIES & EXPRESSIONS

85. • The U.S. anti-vaccine group, VacTruth, claims that childhood vaccinations are
possible causal factors in a person becoming homosexual and/or transgender.
• And Italian scientist and journalist Gian Paolo Vanoli said that as a child grows up
and tries to "find its own personality," if he or she has mercury or other substances
in their system that linger from vaccinations, "the child becomes gay."
CHILDHOOD VACCINATIONS

86. • Daniel Regli
• Zurich, Switzerland City Council Member, 2017
• Higher Rate of Suicide among Gay Men
• Due to Incontinence:
• “homosexuals with multiple partners take their lives between the
ages of 30 and 40…because their anal muscle is not holding up
as it should.”
WEAK ANAL MUSCLES

87. LGBT PEOPLE AS
DIFFERENT HUMAN TYPE
• Although records back to antiquity documented universal
existence of same-sex sexuality
• Not until 19th century C.E. that scientific community
created categories of sexual identification
• Leading to “medicalization” of homosexuality, bisexuality,
and gender non-conformity, and construction as
immutable biological types
• Gay males seen as feminized males
• Lesbians seen as masculinized females

88. LGBT PEOPLE AS
DIFFERENT HUMAN TYPE
• Two such theorists were American physicians, G.
Frank Lydston and James Kiernan
• They posited homosexuals and bisexuals as a
kind of remnant of the primitive organisms from
which humans evolved.

89. G. FRANK LYDSTON
• U. S. Urologist, Surgeon, and
Professor from Chicago
• In 1889, Lydston delivered a
lecture, College of Physicians
and Surgeons in Chicago
• Sexual perverts
(homosexuals) are
“physically abnormal”

90. G. FRANK LYDSTON
“…the unfortunate class of individuals who are
characterized by perverted sexuality have been
viewed in the light of their moral responsibility rather
than as the victims of a physical and incidentally of a
mental defect….Even to the moralist there should be
much satisfaction in the thought that a large class of
sexual perverts are physically abnormal rather than
morally leprous.”

91. JAMES D. KIERNAN
• 1892 Published
Responsibility in Sexual
Perversion
• In Chicago Medical
Recorder
• First known use of term
“homosexual” in print in
U.S.

92. JAMES D. KIERNAN
• The "pure homosexuals" are persons whose "general
mental state is that of the opposite sex.“
• He defined these homosexuals as “gender benders,”
rebels from “proper” masculinity and femininity, and
rebels from a procreative and erotic norm.

93. JAMES D. KIERNAN
• Also, first time “heterosexual” seen in print in U.S.
• “Heterosexual” to Kiernan not equated with “normal sexuality”
• One of several “abnormal manifestations of the sexual
appetite”
• These “heterosexuals” he associated with a mental condition
called “psychical hermaphroditism.”
• Heterosexuals experienced so-called male erotic attraction to
females and so-called female erotic attraction to males.
• Later termed “Bisexuality.”

94. • U.S. Physician, 1921:
“A physical examination of [female
homosexuals] will in practically every instance
disclose an abnormally prominent clitoris.”
PERRY M. LICHTENSTEIN

95. • French Forensic Medical
Scientist, 1857:
“This degeneracy is evidenced
in men who engage in same-
sex eroticism by their
underdeveloped, tapered penis
resembling that of a dog, and a
naturally smooth anus lacking in
radial folds.”
AUGUST AMBROSE TARDIEU

96. • U.S. Physician, 1896:
“[The lesbian] is usually of a
masculine type, or if she
presented none of the
‘characteristics’ of the
male, was a subject of
pelvic disorder, with scanty
menstruation, and was
more or less hysterical and
insane.”
ALLAN MCLANE HAMILTON

97. AUGUST FOREL
• Swiss physician, 1906
“The [sexual] excesses of female
inverts exceed those of the
male,...and this is their one thought
night and day, almost without
interruption. [Male inverts] feel the
need for passive submission...and
occupy themselves with feminine
pursuits. Nearly all [female and male]
inverts are in a more or less marked
degree psychopaths or neurotics.”

98. Psychological
Theories

99. SIGMUND FREUD
Advanced a four-stage model of Psychosexual
Development:
1. Newborn infants “polymorphously perverse,”
deriving pleasure from tactile sensations
anywhere on their bodies
2. Then developing a sexual drive in the mouth,
(Oral Stage)
3. Then the anus, (Anal Stage)
4. Ultimately, the genitals (Genital Stage)

100. SIGMUND FREUD
• Freud asserted that
homosexuality was a
developmental disorder,
• A fixation at one of the
intermediate “pregenital”
stages,
• He believed this was caused, at
least in part, by an incomplete
resolution in males of the
Oedipal complex.
What does he know?
He smoked!

101. WOMEN’S COLLEGES
• Women were often locked out of college
• Women’s colleges founded mid-19th century
for primarily middle-class women:
• Mt. Holyoke College
• Vassar
• Smith College
• Wellesley College
• Bryn Mawr
• and others

102. DR. EDWARD CLARKE
• Conservative critics against
women’s education
• Dr. Edward Clarke
Massachusetts Medical Society
• 1873 book: Sex in Education
• Warned that study would interfere
with women’s fertility, causing
chronic uterine disease

103. “[W]omen’s colleges are the great
breeding ground of lesbianism. When
young women are thrown together,
they manifest an increasing affection
by the usual tokens. They kiss each
other fondly on every occasion….They
learn the pleasure of direct
contact...and after this, the normal sex
act fails to satisfy them.”
HAVELOCK ELLIS

104. FRANCIS GALTON
• A cousin of Charles Darwin.
• British psychologist.
• A founder of the “Eugenics
Movement.”
• He coined the term “eugenics” in
1883 from the Greek: “well born”
or “good origins or breeding”
• The science of improving qualities
of a “race” by controlling human
breeding

105. EUGENICS
& MASS STERILIZATIONS
• Approximately 65,000 U.S.-Americans sterilized (many
involuntarily) 1900 - 1970
• Supreme Court: Buck v. Bell, 1927: compulsory sterilization
constitutional “for the protection and health of the state.”

106. TRENT LOTT
• U.S. Senate Republican
Majority Leader, 1998,
• Proclaimed that homosexuality
is a disease and sin:
• “It is [a disease]….You should
try to show them a way to deal
with that problem, just like
alcohol…or sex addiction…or
kleptomaniacs.”

107. • 1952, Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders I:
homosexuality “Sociopathic Personality Disorder”
• 1968, Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders II: “Sexual Orientation Disorder”
• Mid-1980s, Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders III: Homosexuality: if they are comfortable
with sexual orientation, not mentally ill
• Homosexuality: if “in conflict with” their sexual orientation: “Ego-
Dystonic Homosexuality”
• 1987, Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III-R:
Removed “Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality”
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION

108. PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSION
• 1940s – 1960s
• LGBT people Involuntary Committed to
Mental Hospitals

109. PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSION
• Forced Electroshock
• Forced “hormonal balance therapy” of LGBT
people

110. PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSION
• Prefrontal Lobotomies on LGBT people
• Insert metal spike into brain through nose or
eye socket, and rip out the prefrontal cortex.

111. DR. EDMUND BERGLER
• Psychoanalyst
• 1956, Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life?
“…homosexuality is a neurotic condition…. Specific
neurotic defenses and personality traits that are partly or
entirely psychopathic are specifically and exclusively
characteristic of homosexuals, and…these defenses and
traits put the homosexual into a special psychiatric
category.”

112. IRVING BIEBER, M.D.
• 1962: Co-authored study, Homosexuality: A
Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexual
• New York Society of Psychoanalysts
• Conclusion: Homosexuality a psychopathology that
could be cured or prevented with psychoanalysis
• 1973: “A homosexual is a person whose
heterosexual function is crippled, like the legs of a
polio victim.”

113. DR. FRANK S. CAPRIO
• Psychoanalyst
• 1954, Homosexuality: A Psychodynamic
Study of Lesbianism
“Lesbianism is a symptom, and not a disease
entity. It is the result of a deep-seated
neurosis which involves narcissistic
gratifications and sexual immaturity. It also
represents a neurotic defense mechanism
for feelings of insecurity.”

114. DR. CHARLES SOCARIDES
• Psychiatrist
• 1992, founded National Association for
Research & Therapy of Homosexuality
(NARTH)
• Homosexuality an illness, a neurosis,
possibly caused by an over-attachment
to the mother. This “illness” could be
treated.

115. RICHARD SOCARIDES
• Son of Charles Socarides
• Democratic political strategist & New York
attorney
• White House advisor to President Bill Clinton
• 1993 to 1999
• Special Assistant, Senior Adviser for Public Liaison.
Principal Adviser on LGBT Civil Rights
• One of the highest ranking openly gay persons
ever to serve in the U.S. federal government.

116. • Uzbek imam Rahmatulloh
Saifutdinov,
• Chief imam at the Mirzo Yusuf
Mosque in Tashkent,
• Gay babies are born when their
mothers have sex with their
husbands but fantasize about
other men.
RAHMATULLOH SAIFUTDINOV

117. DR. EVELYN HOOKER
• 1950s: Studied Non-Patient Homosexuals leading good
satisfying lives.
• Psychologists reviewing her results were unable to distinguish
her research subjects from heterosexuals in control group.

118. Defining
Ourselves

119. • Annual Conference, 1970, San Francisco
• LGBT demonstrators outside and a few inside protesting APA
definition of homosexuality as “Sexual Orientation Disorder.”
• APA organizers promised to permit LGBT workshop panel at
conference next year in Washington, D.C.
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION

120. GAY LIBERATION FRONT
COLLECTIVE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

121. Christopher Street Liberation Day, NYC, 1971,
Washington, D.C. Contingent

122. MAY DAY DEMONSTRATIONS
• May 1, 1971, Washington, D.C.
• Purpose: Shut down government
• Protest Vietnam War
• GLF Washington, D.C.
organized “Gay May Day”
• Thousands arrested

123. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION
• Annual Conference, 1971, Washington, DC
• Shoreham Hotel
• Convocation Speaker: US Attorney General
Ramsey Clark

124. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION
• The panelists for a later smaller workshop, “Lifestyles of Non-
patient Homosexuals,” attended the Convocation acting as our
“Trojan Horse.”
• The panelists were Dr. Franklin Kameny, Director of Mattachine
DC; Barbara Gittings, Director of the Philadelphia office of
Daughters of Bilitis; and Jack Baker, first “out” U.S. student body
president at the University of Minnesota.

125. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION
• During Ramsey Clark’s Key Note Address
• Kameny, Gittings, & Baker opened the doors from
inside the Convocation Hall
• In we protesters ran scattering around the hall
chanting, & Kameny grabbed the microphone:
"Psychiatry is the enemy incarnate . . . You
may take this as a declaration of war against you!"

126. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION
• Annual Conference, 1972, Dallas, TX
• Guest Panel
• Encouraging members to reevaluate definition of
homosexuality as psychological disorder
• L: Barbara Gittings, DOB Philadelphia
• M: Franklin Kameny, Mattachine, DC
• R: Gay APA member wearing mask
(“Dr. H. Anonymous”
a.k.a. Dr. John E. Fryer)

127. • 1973, American Psychiatric Association, no disorder if
comfortable with sexual orientation
“[H]omosexuality per se implies no impairment in
judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or
vocational capabilities.”
• 1975, American Psychological Association, no disorder.
• Urged mental health professionals
“to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness
that has long been associated with homosexual
orientations.”
• National Association of Social Workers, no disorder
HOMOSEXUALITY
NO LONGER DISEASE, 1973

128. • The World Health Organization (WHO) has removed
transgender from its list of mental disorders, 2019.
• WHO approved an update to its International Statistical
Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).
TRANS IDENTITIES
NO LONGER DISEASE, 2019
World Health Organization

129. On the
Social
Construction
of Identities

130. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF IDENTITY
• “Identities” socially constructed:
• Sexual Identity
• Gender Identity
• Race
• Nationality
• Religion
• Disability
• Handedness (at one time)
• And many other identities

131. Only within last 150
years, organized
sustained political
effort to protect
rights of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, asexual,
trans*, intersex, &
queer people.

132. DIASPORIC IDENTITIES: DISPERSED
THROUGHOUT CULTURES & FAMILIES

133. End of Part Three