ABSTRACT
Although same-sex attractions and behaviors are historically universal, that does not mean that they appear in the same form as in twenty-first-century Western culture. It is important to note that the last form of same-sex relationships, between equal partners who identify as gay and see their orientation as baked-in and lifelong, is one of the least common forms, historically and culturally. The pathology view of same-sex attractions prevailed throughout most of the twentieth century, and when the American Psychiatry Association issued its first compendium of mental disorders in 1952, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Mental Disorders included homosexuality as a ‘sociopathic personality disturbance.’ The social impact of the de-classification of homosexuality was enormous. Most historians believe that, without this, the substantial civil rights gains made by gay and lesbian people since the 1970s would not have been possible. Gay-affirmative therapy is an approach that is informed not only by psychological theory, but also by political and historical realities.
