Skip to main content

Medical Intervention and LGBT People: A Brief History

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Trauma, Resilience, and Health Promotion in LGBT Patients

Abstract

This chapter reviews the history of the US lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and its interactions with the medical community. We will discuss and define terms such as sexual orientation and gender presentation. Time periods include nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, WWII–1950s, 1960s–1990s, and current trends in LGBT health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Institutes of Medicine. The health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people: building a foundation for better understanding. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Chauncey G. Gay New York: gender, urban culture, and the making of the gay male world, 1890–1940. New York: Basic Books; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  3. von Krafft-Ebing R. Psychopathia sexualis, with especial reference to the antipathic sexual instinct, a medico-forensic study. Translation published by Rehman, FJ. No copyright; 1852. Available from: https://archive.org/details/psychopathiasexu00krafuoft. Accessed 30 Jan 2016.

  4. Ellis H. Studies in the psychology of sex, vol II, sexual inversion. No Copyright; 1927. Project Gutenberg e-book. Available from: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=13611. Accessed 30 Jan 2016.

  5. Hall R. The well of loneliness, No copyright;1928. Available from Project Gutenberg e-book: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0609021. Accessed 30 Jan 2016.

  6. Freud, S. Letter to an American mother, 1935. In: E Freud, editor. The letters of Sigmund Freud. New York: Basic Books; 1975. p. 423–4. Quoted in Drescher J. A history of homosexuality and organized psychoanalysis. J Am Acad Psychoanal Dyn Psychiatry. 2008; 36(3):443–60.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Michael Moore F. Drag!: male and female impersonators on stage, screen and television: an illustrated world history. Jefferson: McFarland and Company Incorporated Pub; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lerner B. Breast cancer wars. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mukerjee S. The emperor of all maladies. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hunt S. Taking heart – cardiac transplantation past, present and future. N Engl J Med. 2006;355(3):231–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Valenstein E. Great and desperate cures: the rise and decline of psychosurgery and other radical treatments for mental illness. New York: Basic Books; 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Donaldson v O’Connor, 422 US 563 (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Leavitt D. The man who knew too much: Alan Turing and the invention of the computer. New York: W. W. Norton; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Anonymous, “Electro-shock: the agony of the years after.” In: Katz J, editor. Gay American history, lesbians and gay men in the U.S.A. Meridian Books; 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Drescher, J. A history of homosexuality and organized psychoanalysis. J Am Acad Psychoanal Dyn Psychiatry. 2008;36(3):443–60. Especially note his citation of Bergler, E. Homosexuality: disease or way of life. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company; 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Johnson DK. The lavender scare: the cold war persecution of gays and lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  17. D’Emilio J. The homosexual menace. In: Making trouble: essays on gay history, politics and the university. New York: Routledge; 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kuhn B. Gay power! The stonewall riots and the gay rights movement, 1969. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books; 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Feinberg L. Stone butch blues. Ithaca: Firebrand Books; 1993. This autobiographical novel provides a moving account of abuses, within and outside of the criminal justice system, of a young lesbian in mid-century America.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Kinsey P, et al. Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia: Saunders; 1948. Sexual behavior in the human female. Saunders; 1953.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Berube A. Coming out under fire: the history of gay men and women in world war two. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Meyerowitz J. How sex changed: a history of transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Bayer R. Homosexuality and American psychiatry: the politics of diagnosis. Princeton University Press: Princeton; 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  24. CDC. HIV and AIDS: United States, 1981–2000. Morb Mortal Wkly Read. 2001; 50(21):430–4. [cited 2015 November 8]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5021a2.htm.

  25. NIH. The C. Everett Koop Papers, AIDS, the Surgeon General and the Politics of Public Health. [cited 2016 January 21]. Available from: https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/QQ/p-nid/87.

  26. CDC. HIV among gay and bisexual men. 2015. [cited 2016 January 19]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/.

  27. Murphy TF. Redirecting sexual orientation: techniques and justifications. J Sex Res. 1992;29:501–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Ferguson v. JONAH, Case Number L-5473, Hudson County Superior Court, New Jersey; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  29. See, for instance the California law, 2012 Cal. Legis. Serv. Ch. 835 (S.B. 1172) (codified at Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 865(a) & 865.1 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health. (n.d.). [cited 2016 January 19]. Available from: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-health.

  31. Sontag D. Transgender woman cites attacks and abuse in men’s prison. The New York Times [Internet]. 2015. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/us/ashley-diamond-transgender-inmate-cites-attacks-and-abuse-in-mens-prison.html?_r=0.

  32. Murray LR. The high price of looking like a woman. The New York Times [Internet]. 2011. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/nyregion/some-transgender-women-pay-a-high-price-to-look-more-feminine.html?_re=0.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tia Powell MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Shapiro, S., Powell, T. (2017). Medical Intervention and LGBT People: A Brief History. In: Eckstrand, K., Potter, J. (eds) Trauma, Resilience, and Health Promotion in LGBT Patients. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54509-7_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54509-7_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54507-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54509-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics