SCIENCE AND THE POLITICS OF PATHOLOGY.

Gagnon, John H.

The article focuses on studies related to science and pathology. A researcher has identified an important continuity with traditional scientific homophobia in his discussion of recent biological and sociological on gender' preference in erotic relations. Historically the strongest supporters for the belief in either the genetic, hormonal, or early childhood origins of gender preference in adult erotic relations could be found among those who were seeking evidence for the pathological origins for what they believed was a pathological outcome. Various points apparently need constant reiteration. Most of the interest that has been expressed about the origins of same gender erotic preference has derived not from its scientific interest but from social and political struggles over the moral, value of homosexuality. If there were no connection between such scientific efforts and specific cultural prejudices, one could afford to be untroubled by what would otherwise be a harmless culturally induced obsession. However, the ways in which scientific hypotheses became the basis for or confirmatory of a vulgar belief in the defective origins of the homosexual poses a more complex question.

HOMOSEXUALITY; SCIENCE; PATHOLOGY; PREJUDICES; ATTITUDE (Psychology); PSYCHOLOGY

Journal of Sex Research, 1987, Vol 23, Issue 1, p120

0022-4499

Academic Journal

10.1080/00224498709551348