Homosexuality and Psychiatry: The History of Pathologization and Liberation

When homosexuality and psychiatry, the historical relationship between medical institutions and same-sex attraction. Also known as gay pathologization, it refers to the decades when doctors, courts, and mental health systems treated same-sex desire as a mental illness. In 1952, the first DSM listed homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disturbance." By 1973, it was removed. That shift didn’t happen because doctors suddenly got smarter—it happened because gay people refused to stay silent. They showed up at meetings, published research, and demanded to be heard. And they won.

The idea that being gay was a sickness didn’t come from science. It came from fear, religion, and control. Doctors like Richard von Krafft-Ebing called it a "degenerative disorder." Freud said it wasn’t a disease but still something to be "cured." Even in the 1960s, electroshock therapy and chemical castration were used on gay men in hospitals across the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, police raided gay bars, employers fired people for being out, and families sent kids to conversion "therapies." All of it was backed by the authority of psychiatry. But the real story isn’t just about doctors—it’s about resistance. The gay liberation, the social movement that challenged the medical and legal oppression of LGBTQ+ people. Also known as LGBTQ+ rights movement, it emerged in the late 1960s and forced institutions to reckon with their own cruelty. Stonewall wasn’t just a riot. It was a rejection of the idea that gay people were broken. Activists like Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny handed out pamphlets at psychiatric conferences, arguing that the problem wasn’t the patient—it was the system.

Today, we still live with the aftermath. Some therapists still push conversion therapy under new names. Insurance companies still deny care to trans people. And the stigma lingers in quiet ways—parents asking if their child "can be fixed," teens fearing therapy because they think it means they’re sick. But the truth is clear: LGBTQ+ mental health, the emotional and psychological well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Also known as queer mental health, it’s not about fixing identity—it’s about removing barriers to care. Modern psychology now recognizes that being gay, bi, or trans isn’t a disorder. The real disorder? The shame society forced on people for decades.

What you’ll find below are articles that dig into this history—not as distant facts, but as lived experiences. From how the DSM changed, to how lesbian archives were erased, to how feminist thinkers like Anne Koedt challenged the medical establishment’s control over female desire. These stories aren’t just about the past. They’re about why we still fight for the right to exist without a diagnosis.