Although same-sex attractions and behaviors have existed for centuries, the term “homosexuality” was not introduced until 1869 by Hungarian writer Karoly Maria Kertbeny, after the creation of sodomites’ (same-sex sexual practices) molly houses in European cities (Drescher p.184, Tamagne p.49). Since then there have been many arguments about homosexuality, its origins and potential treatments between clinicians, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts (Tamagne p.50). According to Drescher, doctors labeled homosexuality a “disease” that requires a physician's care rather than punishment and thus, “appealed to many individuals with same-sex attractions who preferred the designation “illness over that of “sinner”” (Drescher p.184). Psychiatrists and …show more content…
Similarly, Christians advocated for gay conversion therapy, which promised to turn gay men and women straight. There are numerous methods of gay conversion therapy. The methods that are most common in the Christian sphere are a combination of prayer or religious conversion and “therapy”. Such therapies are individual or group counseling, electroshock therapy, hypnosis, masturbatory reconditioning, and giving patients nausea-inducing drugs while forcing them to view homosexual erotica (Merritt). The latter aimed to make homosexuals associate a strong feeling of disgust towards their same-sex desires. Prayer was sought to encourage patients to surrender their lives, feelings, and desires to God. Additionally, individuals were required to end sexual relationships and communication with their same-sex partners (Nicolosi). Overall gay conversion therapy relied on patients to “submit to the therapist's authority to enforce social expectations for heterosexual normativity as a condition of treatment” (Drescher p.194). Thus, gay conversion therapy methods rely upon gender stereotypes and internalized homophobia (negative attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and stereotypes about LGBT people that are directed inward by someone with same-sex attraction) (Drescher