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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.
THE ABOMABLE LEGACY OF GAY-CONVERSN THERAPY
(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.
” 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.