Departing from Deviance: A History of Homosexual Rights and Emancipatory Science in America Hardcover - 2001 - 1st Edition

First line

The social and political upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s reflected an intensification of the long struggle by oppressed people to resist domination by claiming the right to speak in their own voice.

From the rear cover

The struggle to remove the stigma of sickness surrounding same-sex love has a long history. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic classification of mental illness. But the groundwork for this pivotal decision was laid decades earlier. In this new study, Henry L. Minton looks back at the struggle of the American gay and lesbian activists who chose scientific research as a path for advancing homosexual rights. He traces the history of gay and lesbian emancipatory research from its early beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its role in challenging the illness model in the 1970s. By examining archival sources and unpublished manuscripts, Minton reveals the substantial accomplishments made by key researchers and relates their life stories. He also considers the contributions of mainstream sexologists such as Alfred C. Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, who supported the cause of homosexual rights through the advancement of scientific knowledge. By uncovering this hidden chapter in the story of gay liberation, Departing from Deviance makes an important contribution to both the history of science and the history of sexuality.

Media reviews

Citations

• Choice, 10/01/2002, Page 363