Contents:
- GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
- THE 1970S “GAY-CURE” EXPERIMENTS WRTEN OUT OF SCIENTIFIC HISTORY
- THE MAN WHO IED GAY PEOPLE’S BRAS
- THE MAN WHO ATTEMPTED TO USE PLEASURE CONDNG TO TURN A GAY MAN STRAIGHT
GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
Rowlg has nied that her psdonym Robert Galbrah is lked to the anti-LGBTQ+ gay nversn therapist named Robert Galbrah "Harry Potter" thor jt released another book her Cormoran Strike tective novel seri tled "Troubled Blood, " where a plotle volvg a male serial killer who disguis himself women's clothg beg ced as transphobic some quarters. Galbrah Heath was a mid-20th century psychiatrist who pneered a range of uhil practic that would later bee known as nversn experimented wh a variety of methods to "cure" gay men, g electroshock treatments an attempt to change a person's sexual orientatn—such procr are now nmned by the medil muny.
A number of people have poted out on social media the likens between Rowlg's pen name and that of the homophobic scientist but reprentativ for the thor sist is merely a cince. In 1899, a German psychiatrist electrified the dience at a nference on hypnosis wh a bold claim: He had turned a gay man straight.
Homosexualy, pecially same-sex relatnships between men, was nsired viant, sful and even crimal for centuri.
THE 1970S “GAY-CURE” EXPERIMENTS WRTEN OUT OF SCIENTIFIC HISTORY
In the late 19th century, psychiatrists and doctors began to addrs homosexualy, too.
(Cred: Imagno/Getty Imag)There were plenty of theori as to why people were homosexual. For Eugen Steach, a pneerg Atrian endocrologist, homosexualy was rooted a man’s tticl. This theory led to tticle transplantatn experiments the 1920s durg which gay men were strated, then given “heterosexual” tticl.
THE MAN WHO IED GAY PEOPLE’S BRAS
” Others theorized that homosexualy was a psychologil disorr stead. Sigmund Frd hypothized that humans are born nately bisexual and that homosexual people bee gay bee of their ndng. But though Frd emphasized that homosexualy wasn’t a disease, per se, some of his lleagu didn’t agree.
They began to e new psychiatric terventns an attempt to “cure” gay people. Robert Galbrah Heath, a psychiatrist New Orleans who pneered the technique, ed this form of bra stimulatn, along wh hired prostut and heterosexual pornography, to “change” the sexual orientatn of gay men. But though Heath ntend he was able to actually turn gay men straight, his work has sce been challenged and cricized for s methodology.
An offshoot of the techniqu was “aversn therapy, ” which was found on the premise that if LGBTQ people beme disgted by homosexualy, they would no longer experience same-sex sire.
THE MAN WHO ATTEMPTED TO USE PLEASURE CONDNG TO TURN A GAY MAN STRAIGHT
Others were given electril shocks—sometim to their genals—while they looked at gay pornography or cross-drsed.
” LGBTQ people had long protted the cel and scientifilly dub forms of “treatment, ” but the ncept that homosexualy was a disease was accepted by the majory of the medil tablishment.