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GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
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. 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 ABOMABLE LEGACY OF GAY-CONVERSN THERAPY
” 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.