Social Construction of Americans' Sexuality
The gay and lesbian communities in the United States have fought for many decades to achieve full civil rights. In recent years there has been a large shift in society’s ideas about and attitudes towards the gay and lesbian community. For this discussion, listen to the podcast from This American Life entitled “81 Words
(Links to an external site.),” which discusses how and why the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease in 1973. In addition, read the recent report (Links to an external site.) from the Associated Press and NORC, which provides statistics from public opinions polls regarding American’s attitude. After reviewing these resources, address the following: Describe the social context for gays and lesbians in the United States in the early 1970s and compare that to the social context today. How can society’s changing attitudes towards gays and lesbians be used as evidence that sexuality is socially constructed? Select two statistics from the AP/NORC report that you think serve as evidence that ideas about gay and lesbian communities are socially constructed. Describe the statistics and explain how these statistics can be used as evidence of the social construction of sexuality.
http://www(dot)thisamericanlife(dot)org/radio-archives/episode/204/81-words
https://apnorc(dot)org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/LGBT-issues_D5_FINAL.pdf
Social Construction of Sexuality
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Social Construction of Sexuality
The social context for gays and lesbians changed significantly in 1973. In the early 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognized homosexuality as a disease through its 81-word definition of sexual deviance (“81 Words,” n.d.). Notably, gays and lesbians were not allowed to participate in various things since they were perceived as mentally sick people. Therefore, they were an abomination and had limited rights compared to heterosexuals. Today, the social context of gays and lesbians has changed positively. The closeted APA’s group of gay psychiatrists called GAYPA changed the definition of homosexuality, which was the turning point for the perception of homosexuality (“81 Words,” n.d.). That is why individuals are not discriminated against based on their sexuality today since society has accepted that gays and lesbians have equal rights to heterosexuals.
Society’s changing attitudes toward gays and lesbians can be used as evidence that sexuality is socially constructed. For example, a General Social Survey conducted by AP-NORC in 2015 portrays that more people started supporting same-sex marriages in 2010 (AP-NORC, 2015). Before the change of homosexuality definition in 1973, individual...
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