The 1970s “gay-cure” experiments wrten out of scientific history | Ars Techni

Contents:

• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
•  JK ROWLG ROBERT GALBRAH PSYCHIATRIST GAY TORTURE TROUBLED BLOOD REVIEW TRANSPHOBIA TROLLS
• THE 1970S “GAY-CURE” EXPERIMENTS WRTEN OUT OF SCIENTIFIC HISTORY
• THE MAN WHO IED GAY PEOPLE’S BRAS
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• 'I N MAKE YOU STRAIGHT THREE MONTHS': INSI INDIA'S GAY NVERSN DTRY

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.

 JK ROWLG ROBERT GALBRAH PSYCHIATRIST GAY TORTURE TROUBLED BLOOD REVIEW TRANSPHOBIA TROLLS

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 1970S “GAY-CURE” EXPERIMENTS WRTEN OUT OF SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

(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.

THE MAN WHO IED GAY PEOPLE’S BRAS

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.

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. This clud the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, which nsired homosexualy to be a psychiatric the 1960s and 1970s, as a vol gay rights movement took to the streets to mand equaly, the profsn began to turn s back on the ncept that people uld be “nverted” to heterosexualy.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

In 1973, the APA removed homosexualy om the DSM, s fluential manual of psychiatric disorrs, and medil profsnals began to distance themselv om techniqu they had once embraced.

That wasn’t the end of attempts to turn gay people straight. They lled their techniqu “nversn” or “reparative” therapy, or advertised themselv as “ex-gay” mistri.

'I N MAKE YOU STRAIGHT THREE MONTHS': INSI INDIA'S GAY NVERSN DTRY

Their methods varied, and clud everythg om talk therapy to “gay nversn” mps and nferenc, LGBTQ people were isolated om fay and iends, hypnotized, told to pray until their homosexualy subsid, stcted to beat effigi of their parents, mocked, ached on “proper” genr rol, and told their sexualy was unnatural and And Anne Plk, both “formerly gay” pose wh their son, Timothy, a mpaign for Gay Conversn to Heterosexualy. “I read books and listened to dtap about how to have a ‘rrective and healg relatnship wh J Christ, ’” wr Jam Guay, a gay man who attend weekly therapy and nversn semars as a teen.

“The materials talked about how the “gay liftyle” would create disease, pravy and misery.

Though the ncept of gay nversn still exists today, a growg ti has turned agast the practice. Today, 13 stat and the District of Columbia have laws that ban gay nversn therapy practic.