Homosexuality as a mental illness. a For millennia the concept of homosexuality was
seen as “"unnatural acts," "crimes against nature," "sodomy," or "buggery." Any man
found to engaged in any of these acts were often killed until it’s decriminalization that
started in 1791 in post-Revolutionary France. While crimes against nature rules were
decriminalized, it became of interest to scientific communities who tried to understand
this turned it into a mental illness. Any man or woman found to have these desires
were declared mentally ill and as such many gay men or woman hid who they were to
the society. Not being able to live their true selves lead to keep deep dark secrets that
did cause mental illness due to the fear of being discovered.
In today’s society while more accepting to people of different sexual desires and views
it is the still taboo to be a Homosexual in our society and is constant political issue that
arises constantly. a There is great debate and discussion on the homosexual “agenda”
and many believe that being homosexual will lead you to “hell” as stated in the bible.
After all these centuries the core of homosexuals in our current society is
fundamentally afraid or disgusted over seeing a homosexual couple showing affection in
public vs a heterosexual couple.
Understanding how the simple act of loving someone that goes against the social norms
has been demonized and referred to as a mental illness even today in some circles. So
much so that many multiple suicide attempts by homosexual men have occurred based
on a study done in the 1990’s our of 2881 men interviewed “Twenty-one percent had
made a suicide plan; 12% had attempted suicide (almost half of those 12% were
multiple attempters). Most who attempted suicide made their first attempt before age
25. Although prevalence of parasuicide (i.e., attempted suicide) has remained constant
across birth cohorts, mean age at initial attempts has declined.” (Paul JP et al)
Sources
Paul JP, Catania J, Pollack L, Moskowitz J, Canchola J, Mills T, Binson D, Stall R. Suicide attempts
among gay and bisexual men: lifetime prevalence and antecedents. Am J Public Health. 2002
Aug;92(8):1338-45. doi: 10.2105/ajph.92.8.1338. PMID: 12144994; PMCID: PMC1447240.
LGBT Mental Health https://www.aglp.org/gap/1_history/
