Publication Date
2015
Publication Details
Anderson, J. & Holland, E. (2015). The legacy of medicalising 'homosexuality': A discussion on the historical effects of non-heterosexual diagnostic classifications. Sensoria: A Journal of Mind Brain and Culture,11(1), 4-15. Australia: Swinburne University of Technology * Faculty of Health, Arts and Design.
Abstract
The classification of non-heterosexuality has changed considerably over the past century. Once considered as medical conditions attracting legal complications and serious social stigma, expressions of non-heterosexuality are now broadly considered to be normal variations of human sexuality. The historical inclusion of homosexuality in the psychiatric literature may still have implications for how sexual orientation is viewed today, including the ongoing treatment of homosexuality as an illness despite its delisting from medical diagnostic nomenclatures. This discussion paper explores the historically recorded diagnostic classification of homosexuality, reviews the processes that led to the reclassification in the nomenclature and closes with a commentary for current implications of this medical legacy.
Document Type
Open Access Journal Article
Access Rights
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.