“This 60-year-old relic was not some gay-baiting prelude to the McCarthy era. It came, rather, in response to public outcry over sex crimes in California, specifically the molestation-murder of a 6-year-old Los Angeles girl,” writes Bonnie Lowenthal. “The murderer was not a gay man. There was no connection between the crime and homosexuality at all. Even so, before the dust had settled, well-meaning California legislators passed a law that not only required health officials to seek ‘the causes and cures of homosexuality’ but likened people who are gay to child molesters. Amazingly, it’s still on the books.” As lawmakers were pressured to act among public outrage against an abducted little girl, “gay people — simply because they vexed the psychiatric profession — were swept up in the net.” This is not to be confused with the Catholic Church’s reaction to child molestation scandals, which it firmly blames on homosexuals.
The California State Law Seeking a Cure For Homosexuality? It Started to Keep Kids Safe From Molesters
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Cam
It’s similar to the Catholic Church though. Which refuses to even mention the countless numbers of women raped, young girls abused in their homes for the unwed and their orphages in Europe etc… because if they can try to blame it on “The Gays” maybe they can sweep it under the rug. too bad for them that so many of those women have come forward. I’m sure the 13 year old girl raped several times inside the Church Sacristy would have much prefered it if her Priest had been homosexual.
B
No. 1 · Cam wrote, “It’s similar to the Catholic Church though…”
What QUEERTY wrote would give you that impression but the original sources do not. Bonnie Lowenthal’s article in the Los Angeles Times, which QUEERTY cites, contains the following comments, suggesting that homosexuality was simply tagged onto a list because in 1950 homosexuality was considered to be a mental disorder:
“Judge A.A. Scott, presiding judge of the Juvenile Court in Los Angeles, complained that the state lacked tools to address the problem. ‘The weakness,’ he said, ‘lies in the Department of Mental Hygiene. There is no program under which to treat these sexual psychopaths.’
“Scott would soon get his program. Aside from beefed-up enforcement policies, lawmakers sought an academic approach. They would order the state’s mental hospitals and its universities to solve the problem.
“It was at this step, as the Legislature defined the role of science in solving the ‘sexual psychopath’ problem, that gay people — simply because they vexed the psychiatric profession — were swept up in the net.
“In 1950, homosexuality remained, officially, a mental disorder. So when the Legislature promised funding for a study into the causes and cures of sexual deviance, it was, tragically, natural to add homosexuality to the list.”
My “conspiracy theory” is that some random researcher encouraged the legislature to add homosexuality to the list so there would be more research topics to propose in grant applications. It’s publish or perish and it’s hard to publish if you can’t find any funding. Of course, it could just have been some lawyer trying to cover all the bases while drafting the legislation.