Departing from Deviance: A History of Homosexual Rights and Emancipatory Science in America

by Henry L. Minton

Overview

The struggle to remove the stigma of sickness surrounding same-sex love has a long history. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic classification of mental illness, but the groundwork for this pivotal decision was laid decades earlier. In this new study, Henry L. Minton looks back at the struggle of the American gay and lesbian activists who chose scientific research as a path for advancing homosexual rights. He traces the history of gay and lesbian emancipatory research from its early beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its role in challenging the illness model in the 1970s. By examining archival sources and unpublished manuscripts, Minton reveals the substantial accomplishments made by key researchers and relates their life stories. He also considers the contributions of mainstream sexologists such as Alfred C. Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, who supported the cause of homosexual rights through the advancement of scientific knowledge. By uncovering this hidden chapter in the story of gay liberation, Departing from Deviance makes an important contribution to both the history of science and the history of sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226530444
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/15/2001
Series:	Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology Ser.
Edition description:	1
Pages:	355
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Henry L. Minton is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Windsor, Canada. He is the author of Lewis M. Terman: Pioneer in Psychological Testing and Currents of Thought in American Social Psychology.

Table of Contents

Preface

1.Introduction: Emancipatory Science and
Homosexual Rights

2.The Relationship between Homosexuals
and Sex Researchers, 1870-1940

3.Jan Gay and the Sex Vairants Committee,
1935-41

4.Homosexual Life Stories, 1935-41

5.Henry and Gross and the Study of Sex
Offenders, 1937-72

6.Thomas Painter and the Study of Male
Prostitution, 1935-43

7.Toward Participatory Research on
Homosexuality: Painter, Kinsey, and
the Kinsey Institute, 1943-73

8.Evelyn Hooker, Frank Kameny, and
Depathologizinf Homosexuality,
1957-73
Epilogue: Beyond 1973

Notes

Index

Photographs

Recipe

The struggle to remove the stigma of sickness surrounding same-sex love has a long history. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic classification of mental illness. But the groundwork for this pivotal decision was laid decades earlier. In this new study, Henry L. Minton looks back at the struggle of the American gay and lesbian activists who chose scientific research as a path for advancing homosexual rights. He traces the history of gay and lesbian emancipatory research from its early beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its role in challenging the illness model in the 1970s. By examining archival sources and unpublished manuscripts, Minton reveals the substantial accomplishments made by key researchers and relates their life stories. He also considers the contributions of mainstream sexologists such as Alfred C. Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, who supported the cause of homosexual rights through the advancement of scientific knowledge. By uncovering this hidden chapter in the story of gay liberation, Departing from Deviance makes an important contribution to both the history of science and the history of sexuality.