Homosexuality and Homophobia – a Trajectory of Western Late Modernity.

Abstract

Abstract: Homosexuality and homophobia are social phenomena which have a history. From the middle of the 19th century onward, the criminalization, pathologization, and scientification of same-sex practices proliferated. At the same time, an increasing number of mainly men-desiring-men went public, volunteered as objects of scientific research, and developed various forms of resistance. Together, these reciprocal processes merged into a double-helix of an increasingly sharp and aggressive character. The article argues that the increasing repression, and the growing number of self-articulations constitute a trajectory which established the social organization of same-sex practices. With its epicenter in Central Europe, the initiation of this trajectory at around 1850 marked the beginning of a new and distinct era.