Attitudes to Male Homosexuality Within the British Medical Association in the 1950s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3650408 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lydia Sefton-Minns (Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK, corresponding author), Martin H Johnson (0000-0002-5906-5883, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Anatomy School and Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge, UK) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 545-573 |
| Publication date | 2024-02-23 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00918369.2022.2131131 |
| PMID | 37144918 |
| OpenAlex | W4372294453 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
The British Government appointed a departmental committee to review anti-homosexuality laws in 1954 following a marked increase in the number of arrests for homosexuality after World War II. The committee invited the British Medical Association (BMA) and other institutions to provide scientific and medical evidence relating to homosexuality. In 1954, the BMA established the Committee on Homosexuality and Prostitution to present its view on how the law impacted upon homosexuals and society. This paper analyses the BMA's attitudes to homosexuality by examining its submission to the Departmental Committee. Whilst the BMA supported implicitly the decriminalization of certain homosexual acts, it remained strongly opposed to homosexuality from a moral perspective and insisted that it was an illness. It is concluded that the BMA's submission was driven primarily by a desire to control the "unnatural deviant" behavior of homosexuals and to protect society from that behavior rather than to protect homosexuals
Association (psychology · Family medicine · Homosexuality · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Male Homosexuality · Men who have sex with men · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Syphilis · Gender Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medical History and Research · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |