2 This law, which was re-enacted in 1563, was the basis for all male homosexual convictions until 1885, when the Criminal Assessment Act extended the legal sanction to any sexual contact between males. Religious objections to same sex attraction between men have existed since at least the Middle Ages 1 but were first endorsed in law in England in the 1533 Act of Henry VIII, which classified sodomy as an illegal act between man and woman, man and man, or man and beast. While many participants found happiness in same sex relationships after their treatment, most were left feeling emotionally distressed to some degree.Ĭonclusion The definition of same sex attraction as an illness and the development of treatments to eradicate such attraction have had a negative long term impact on individuals. Although some participants chose to undergo treatments instead of imprisonment or were encouraged through some form of medical coercion, most were responding to complex personal and social pressures that discouraged any expression of their sexuality.
Results Most participants had been distressed by their attraction to their own sex and people in whom they confided thought they needed treatment. Participants 29 people who had received treatments to change their sexual orientation in the United Kingdom and two relatives of former patients. Objectives To investigate the circumstances since the 1950s in which people who were attracted to members of the same sex received treatments to change their sexual orientation, the referral pathway and the process of therapy, and its aftermath.ĭesign A nationwide study based on qualitative interviews.