Plan for the class

Part one: Homosexuality

Mini-lecture: Perverts and felons: secret courts at Harvard, a "Lavender menace" in the government, and corrupters of youth in the suburbs -understanding what was at stake
Depathologizing homosexuality: all class discussion based on common readings (with some images to jog your memory)
Table top work: close reading of John Fryer's 1972 speech to the APA
Not a finished chapter after all? the persistence of conversion therapy

Readings for part one

Only yesterday

"Boys Beware" : a 1962 educational film that warns against "the dangers of homosexuality," which is described as "a sickness of the mind." The ten minute video was produced by the Unified School District and the Police Department of Inglewood, California. (BTW, while not our focus, there was also a "Girls Beware" companion film, that tells the story of a series of girls who accept babysitting jobs from strangers or allow themselves to be seduced by unsavory men and end up ruined, pregnant, or dead)

The 1970s revolt

"It's difficult to explain to anyone who didn't live through that time, how much homosexuality was under the thumb of psychiatry. The sickness label was an albatross around the neck of our early gay rights groups--it infected all our work on other issues. Anything we said on our behalf could be dismissed as "That's just your sickness talking." The sickness label was used to justify discrimination, especially in employment, and especially by our own government." -- Barbara Gittings, 2006

Drescher, Jack. “Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality Download Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality.” Behavioral Sciences 5, no. 4 (2015): 565–575.
Levin, Aaron. “Masked Man Challenged Psychiatrists’ Views on HomosexualityLinks to an external site..” Psychiatrics News, April 28, 2016.

Dr. Henry Anonymous [John Fryer] speech to the American Psychiatric Association. original draft, 1972. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Also available here

Times, Special to the New York. “The A.P.A. Ruling on HomosexualityLinks to an external site..” The New York Times, December 23, 1973, sec. Archives

Unfinished business: are we still trying to "cure" homosexuality?

“Charles W. Socarides, 83;Psychiatrist Said Gays Could Become Straight.” Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2005. .

“Richard Socarides Recalls Coming Out To His Dad, One of the Founders of Conversion Therapy.” I’m From Driftwood, n.d. Accessed January 17, 2026. .

Trailer, "Boy Erased" 2018: “Boy Erased” tells the story of Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.

Part two: PTSD

Mini-lecture #2: from shellshocked to battle neurosis and beyond: wasn't PTSD always a thing?
All class discussion: why Vietnam became the flashpoint for trauma talk
Table-top work: Reading Haley's 1974 paper - what we remember, what has been erased
Other erasures: who gets to be a victim of trauma?

Readings for part two

"I would have preferred Postcombat Stress Disorder or, if we include survivors of other disasters, Postcatastrophic Stress Disorders. The words trauma, stress, and stressors are bloodless compared with disaster and catastrophe." -Chaim Shatan

From "Post-Vietnam syndrome" to "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder"

Bloom, Sandra L. "Our Hearts and our Hopes are Turned to Peace: Origins of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies." Shalev, Arieh Y | Yehuda, Rachel | McFarlane, Alexander Cowell (Ed.), International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma; Shalev, Arieh Y Yehuda, Rachel McFarlane, Alexander Cowell (Ed.), International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000, pp. 27-50
Shatan, Chaim, “Post-Vietnam Syndrome.” New York Times. 1972.
Haley, Sarah A. "When the Patient Reports Atrocities: Specific Treatment Considerations of the Vietnam Veteran." Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 30, no. 2, 1974, pp. 191-196.
Shatan, Chaim F. “‘A True Child of Trauma’—Sarah Haley: 1939–1989.” Download ‘A True Child of Trauma’—Sarah Haley: 1939–1989.”Journal of Traumatic Stress 3, no. 3 (July 1, 1990): 477–81.
Watts, Jay. “Complex Trauma and the Unseen: Who Gets to Be a Victim?” BMJ Mental Health 27, no. 1 (2024): e301240.

Part three

Group mini-project: Race-based trauma stress (RBTS): a category and experience in search of recognition