An Exploratory Study of the Change of the British Society’s Attitude Towards Homosexuality

Abstract

This dissertation explores the shift of attitudes that the British society witnessed throughout its history vis-à-vis homosexuality. The work attempts to elucidate the longstanding condemnation of homosexuality which was substituted by a clinical discourse that supplied a new scope of conceiving the practice; the latter being blatantly deemed as a sinful act and thus forbidden by Christianity. The medical interest and labelling of homosexuality relatively invoked a sentiment of sympathy which aided the phenomenon to evade moral condemnation and be categorized as pathology. Diverse events and factors which aided homosexuality to become perceived as a way of life in the contemporary British society rather than a sin or an illness are discussed in here. Religious, medical and intellectual perspectives are weighed in an attempt to clarify the how and the why the British society’s stances have mutated throughout the course of history towards homosexuality.