Altering Constructs, Directing Change: A Move Towards Improved Treatments for Gay Men

From the “invention” of the homosexual in the late 1800s (Dynes, 1990) until modern day, homosexuality has been viewed predominantly as pathological and therefore necessitating change.  This view led to various treatments to alleviate the illness (Katz, 1992).  Even after the removal of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual in 1973, many psychologists and psychiatrists maintained this previously held notion of homosexuality as a disorder, and continued to treat their patients with a bias towards correcting the patient’s homosexual desires (Isay, 1996).  However, in recent years, a push towards the use of affirmative and other positive psychotherapies in treating homosexuals and the recognition of some of the issues inherent to this group has been seen.  These new forms of therapy are helping homosexuals to understand themselves better and to live more productive and happier lives; to be better adjusted (Rubinstein, 1995).

G-A-Y in the U-S-A: An Historical Look at the Emergence of Homosexuality from 1880 – 1945
 
Introduction

The years between 1880 and 1945 marks the beginning for what would later develop into widespread gay activism in the United States.  It was during this time that negative attitudes towards homosexuality, which had previously been based on religious dogma and moderately shaped by minority ethnic customs, began to take a change.  Some of these attitudinal changes were sparked by the labeling of homosexuality by American doctors in the 1890s, based on terminology that was taken from German doctors.  This classification, in a sense, separated the homosexual from the heterosexual, and therefore created an identity – although still a negative one – for the group.  By developing this identity, however, it empowered homosexuals to begin an emergence from their closets; a coming out, so to speak.

This coming out process would take years of gradual chipping away at the mountain of prejudices built by society.  The tools used by homosexuals were those of literature, song, and clandestine social networks.  Inspired by earlier writers such as Walt Whitman, it was during this era that explicit gay themes began to appear in the works of many gay writers, and later, the development of the gay novel.    In later years, during the late teens and twenties, speakeasies, private parties, and gay bars became more common in larger cities.  And during this same time, somewhat mainstream music began to have gay themes as well.  All of these factors would play a role in the formation of a major gay rights movement that would not take place until more than twenty years later in the 1960s.

Despite religious persecution, negative labeling by medical science, and homophobia, between the years of 1880 and 1945 in the United States there began an emergence of homosexual activism through literature, song, and underground social networks that would continue to grow and lead to major breakthroughs in later years.  Although much of this history remains buried, some of it has been exhumed by contemporary historians through the research of medical writings, personal letters, diaries, police reports, church records, among other documentation, to unveil a past replete with homosexuality and homo-social activities.  The current report will investigate some of these findings and attempt to tie together a brief history of the surfacing of homosexuality during this era and the struggles that homosexuals faced against negative societal attitudes.