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Attitudes to Male Homosexuality Within the British Medical Association in the 1950s.
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- Additional Information
- Source:
Publisher: Routledge Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7502386 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1540-3602 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00918369 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Homosex Subsets: MEDLINE
- Publication Information:
Publication: Philadelphia : Routledge
Original Publication: New York, Haworth Press.
- Subject Terms:
- Abstract:
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.
- Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: British Medical Association; Homosexuality; Wolfenden report; attitudes; history
- Publication Date:
Date Created: 20230505 Date Completed: 20240117 Latest Revision: 20240117
- Publication Date:
20240117
- Accession Number:
10.1080/00918369.2022.2131131
- Accession Number:
37144918
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