Gender and sexualities
Psychology as a discipline has a long history of contributing to inequalities on the basis of sexual orientation. In the first ever edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published in 1952, Homosexuality was listed as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”, and it wasn’t until the third edition, published in 1980, that it was changed from a personality disorder to a psychosexual disorder, diagnosable only if it caused distress within the “homosexual” individual. [Note that the word “homosexual” in contemporary psychology is usually reserved for describing same-gender sexual behaviour rather than identities and people.] Although this meant that from 1980, homosexuality itself was no longer considered a disorder, it wasn’t until 2013 that distress associated with sexual orientation was removed entirely from the DSM (edition five) – an important change, because such a diagnosis could legitimate conversion therapies, ostensibly aimed at eliminating this distress. (See McHenry (2022) for an account of the history of homosexuality and the DSM.)
Although trans people and identities are also no longer medicalised within the DSM, a diagnosis of gender dysphoria – distress related to incongruence between experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender – which is still listed in DSM-5, is often required in order for trans people to access affirming healthcare. It is argued by many that trans experiences shouldn’t be positioned within a “distress model”, but rather within discourses of self-determination and human rights – that an emphasis on distress is stigmatising, and does not capture the real lived experiences of trans people (see Davy, 2015). It is essential therefore that people who work within psychology – including in psychology education – look for ways to contribute to the destigmatisation of LGBTQ+ people and identities, including via the critique of taken-for-granted “realities” concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.
The THESIS team are seeking out ways of “inclusifying” what we teach and how we teach it. We are in the early stages of this, but already have initiatives planned that are aimed at ensuring that the curriculum we deliver does not reify certain fallacies associated with LGBTQ+ people, or contribute to their marginalisation. We intend on offering training to our academic staff on how to offer effective supervision to students who wish to research in gender and sexualities for their final year projects, so they may do in an informed and ethical way. We understand the importance of critiquing psychological theory/research that stigmatises, stereotypes, and/or excludes LGBTQ+ people and identities, and the need to accentuate in our teaching the contribution of feminist and queer perspectives to contemporary psychology. Our progress in this area will be related via this section of the website.