During the 1960s many people began to question traditional attitudes in Amer­ican society in all areas, including the sexual. In this atmosphere, more and more homosexual people began to challenge the social problems they faced. The sym­bolic birth of homosexual activism occurred in 1969 in New York City when police raided a gay bar, the […]

Forty years before World War II, the first organization promoting education about homosexuality and the abolition of laws against homosexuality was founded in Germany. However, the Nazis’ rise to power ended the homo­sexual rights movement in Germany, and about 50,000 gay men were sent to death camps (Schoofs, 1997). Not until the 1950s did people […]

Voting to allow discrimination against homosexual people in employment and the right to marry, calling a lesbian a dyke to insult her, and murdering a gay man may seem unrelated, but they have some key elements in common. First, they reflect at the most fundamental level humankind’s poor record of accepting and valuing differences among […]

The term homophobia describes antihomosexual attitudes that stigmatize and deni­grate any behaviors, identities, relationships, and communities that are not heterosex­ual (Van Voorhis & Wagner, 2002). Irrational fears of homosexual people or fear and loathing of homosexual feelings in oneself are also characteristics. Homophobia can be best thought of as a prejudice similar to racism, anti-Semitism, […]

In the early to mid-1900s, societal attitudes toward homosexuality shifted. The belief that homosexual people were sinners was replaced to some degree by the belief that they were mentally ill. The medical and psychological professions have used drastic treatments in attempting to cure the "illness" of homosexuality. Surgical procedures such as castration were performed in […]

According to the Judeo-Christian tradition that predominates in our own American culture, homosexuality has been viewed negatively. Many religious scholars believe that the condemnation of homosexuality increased during a Jewish reform movement beginning in the 7th century BCE, through which Jewish religious leaders wanted to develop a distinct closed community. Homosexual activities were a part […]

Around the world societal attitudes toward homosexuality vary considerably, as we learn in the following Sexuality and Diversity discussion. SEXUALITY and DiVERSiTY Homosexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective Attitudes toward homosexuality vary considerably across cultures. A number of stud­ies of other cultures, including ancient ones, have revealed widespread acceptance of homosexual behaviors. For example, over 50% of […]

The evidence for biological causation of homosexuality raises important issues: Would people be more accepting of homosexuality if a clear biological basis for it were estab­lished? Recent research indicates that people who do believe that homosexuality is biologi­cally based—that people are born gay—have more positive feelings toward homosexuals and are more supportive of gay civil […]

In some research, gay men are more likely than lesbians to have characteristics that are not typical of heterosexuals. This finding indicates that biological influences may affect men and women somewhat differently. The timing of the onset of puberty is one example. The onset of puberty in the general population is typically 12 months later […]

Although considerable research exploring biological factors contributing to homosex­uality has been done over the years, many of the findings are contradictory, and still no definitive scientific answers exist. The lack of clear-cut, consistent research findings is likely due in large part to the unique physiological and environmental factors underly­ing each individual’s development of sexual orientation. […]