ABSTRACT
“Homosexuality” was viewed as a sin during much of the nineteenth century (Gonsiorek, 1982a). Later it was medicalized (Bérubé, 1990; Rosenberg & Golden, 1992), and by the early part of the twentieth century it was viewed as a mental illness (Morin, 1977). Mainstream psychological practice, based on psychoanalytic theories, equated “homosexuality” with pathology (Lewes, 1988). Although Freud (1949) did not think “homosexual” persons were pathologically impaired, his view was not accepted by many of his earlier and later followers. Instead, they viewed “homosexuality” as a serious deviation that negatively affects one's total social functioning (Bayer, 1987). These negative views and attitudes, however, were not based on dispassionate scientific research, none of which then existed (Herek, 1991). Only in the late 1940s and early 1950s did empirically based research begin to emerge on “homosexuality,” and to strongly challenge the view that it was a mental illness. In the 1960s, a special committee of the British legislature concluded that “homosexual” persons were well adjusted and recommended the repeal of British laws that prohibited same sex-gender sexual behavior between consenting adults (Wolfenden, 1963).
