THE DOCTOR AND THE HOMOSEXUAL

By Lyn Pedersen

a discussion of

HOMOSEXUALITY AND PROSTITUTION, British Medical Association, Tavistock Square, W.C.1, London, 2s. 6d., 94 pp., Dec. 55.

After the English furore over homosexuality described in ONE, May '54, Her Majesty's government appointed a DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE on Homosexuality and Prostitution to investigate these questions and recommend possible. tightening or relaxation of the law.

Likewise the Church of England's Moral Welfare Council made an investigation resulting in the revolutionary interim report reviewed here in June '54 and the Bailey historical study reviewed in Nov. '55. The Council argued that the homosexual is not generally responsible for his basic condition and cannot generally change it, but that like heterosexuals he has a moral duty to abstain from non-procreative sex acts. They stoutly recommend relaxing the law, denying the state any right to regulate private morality of consenting adults.

Now a committee set up by the British Medical Association gives its report and recommendations, offered as the medical profession's advice to the DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE (which, after studying all the submissions, will consider what changes, if any, ought to be made in the law.)

The BMA report got the flare-scare treatment in the press, largely for its opinion that Britain has a half million homosexuals (admitted as a groundless estimate, along with the pious afterthought that England surely has fewer homosexuals than Kinsey found in America), including members of Parliament, the clergy, press and services. This goaded some MP's to demand an official investigation. The doctors said they had specific cases in mind and weren't merely generalizing about the lawmakers, but that their interviews were all anonymous.

Like many things tossed up by committees, this report is uneven, often contradictory or ridiculous. Yet it is generally thoughtful and authoritative, and on one clearly stated point quite historic:

"An important object of the medical treatment of a homosexual person is to help him to adjust himself to his condition in as high a degree as possible and to reach a stage where he is able to exercise sustained restraint from overt acts which would bring him into conflict with the law. It will also help him to achieve self discipline. This will lead to increasing self-respect and enable him to feel that he "belongs" to a society which does not condemn him outright. The more the public understands the nature of homosexuality, the more effective can be the individual treatment by the doctor.

"The medical profession has no panacea to offer for the cure of homosexuality, but it is in a position to do valuable work in enabling the individual to overcome his disability, even if it cannot alter his sexual orientation. It must be admitted with regret that some of the advice given to homosexuals in the name of treatment is often useless, simply defeatist, or grossly unethical. Some of it may be even dangerous, as when, with insufficient investigation into aetiology, a confirmed homosexual is advised to marry, no thought being given to the future partner.

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