Lit Review - Gay Studies essays

Lit Review - Gay Studies essays The social phenomenon that is of paramount interest to me is the sociological process that young homosexual men and women go through known as "Coming Out." This is of interest to me, because of my personal experiences coming out, and of a personal desire to understand the struggles of homosexuals, especially young homosexuals on both a theoretical and individual basis. Historical and Geographic Review of The Closet and Coming Out To provide a proper examination of the process coming out of the closet homosexuality must be examined throughout the history of America and Europe. Homosexuality has been noted since the Greeks. (Plato ) During much of the history of Europe after the Greek's dominance, homosexuality was considered a deviant behavior, and records of it are sporadic and unreliable. What is important is that during the dominance of the Catholic Church up until the 1880's the roots of homophobia were predicated on biblical interpretation. During this time the science embraced the ideology of progress and perfectibility. A discipline known as alienism, which applied a medical model to human behavior, interpreted homosexuality in terms of a sickness versus a theological root as sin or evil. These alienismists suffered from the Darwinian ideas that promoted "natural" as a part of "natural selection." They also considered if environmental conditions. These American scientists looked at and rejected the work of Magnus Hirschfeld and the Scientific Humanitarian Committee that called for the "normalization" and 'emancipation' of homosexuals, instead they participated in the stigmatization and marginilzation of the American Homosexual. American scientists tended to discuss the isolation of homosexuals via castration, sterilization, and confinement. The isolation and marginlization of homosexuals was symptomatic of the desire to increase social control, and reduce social evils through interventionist method ...