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Homosexuality And Homosexual Studies By Henry L Minton

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Recommended: Gender and sexual orientation

Review of Literature

Homosexuality Throughout the years, there has been a constant debate on the definition of homosexuality since the term could possibly be viewed in different perspectives. In 1869, Karl Maria Benkert coined the term “homosexuality”. It is derived from the Greek term, “homos”, which means “same”. Sexual came from the Medieval Latin term, “sexualis”.

In Henry L. Minton’s Gay and Lesbian Studies, he presented some of the possible ways that homosexuality could be defined as from different opposing angles. From the psychobiological perspective, “homosexuality = sexual behavior with a member of the organism’s own sex” (Denniston). While some viewed the term as more than just a behavior, but a lifestyle; “I have always been bothered by the definition of homosexuality as a behavior. Scratching is a behavior. Homosexuality is a way of being, one that can completely influence a person’s life and shape its meaning and direction” (Grahn).

Although in Minton’s search for a universal definition of homosexuality, he concluded that there is a fundamental inconsistency in the way people define homosexuality in gay and lesbian studies. However, he also stated that in the data he was able to collect, “[they] support a persistent identification of homosexuality as an activity. Homosexuality references the sexual activity alone-and not an identity” (Minton 41). …show more content…

The author particularly mentions how the process of requesting a gay or lesbian representative in a conference “suggests that all lesbians and gay men have similar positions on issues and obscures issues of difference and contradiction within lesbian and gay male communities and identities” (Namaste 51). It is in this situation that “…lesbians and (more frequently) gay men are asked to not only represent, but be representative of all lesbians and gay men” (Namaste 51). This is significant knowledge to the group’s study since this aim of the study is not to compare, contrast, and generalize the different situations of same sex relationships; rather it simply seeks to explore and understand the different experiences of the selected

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