
Contents
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“A Problem in Society at Large”: Homosexuality and the War “A Problem in Society at Large”: Homosexuality and the War
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One in Six: How Many Homosexuals? One in Six: How Many Homosexuals?
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“More Discussed than Ignored”: Homosexuality in Postwar Culture “More Discussed than Ignored”: Homosexuality in Postwar Culture
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“What, Precisely, do We Mean When We Use the Term Homosexual?” “What, Precisely, do We Mean When We Use the Term Homosexual?”
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The Search for Causes of Homosexuality The Search for Causes of Homosexuality
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From “National Disease” to “New Taste”: National Character and Homosexuality From “National Disease” to “New Taste”: National Character and Homosexuality
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Five “An Age of Sexual Ambiguity”: Homosexuality and National Character in the Postwar United States
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Published:July 2005
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Abstract
One of the biggest surprises of sexual behavior was how many American men had had sex with other men. Kinsey found that nearly 40 percent of his male subjects had experienced homosexual sex “to the point of orgasm,” and among men who remained unmarried until the age of thirty-five, this increased to 50 percent. Americans had a long history of concern about homosexuality. Same-sex sexual acts in the early republic had been seen as a legal and often a moral transgression, and after the emerging science of sex “discovered” the homosexual as a species in the late nineteenth century, surveillance and discussion of homosexuals increased. Homosexuality troubled postwar discussions of American politics and culture. Its meaning seemed to be shifting as the homosexual emerged, as many phrased it, from his or her place “in the shadows” to become a visible presence in the wake of wartime social changes.
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