Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-275) and index.

Francis Mark Mondimore, M.D., is a practicing psychiatrist in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a member of the clinical faculty of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is author of 'Depression, The Mood Disease', also available from Johns Hopkins.

A terrible sin, a gift from the gods, a mental illness, a natural human variation - throughout history, people have defined homosexuality in all of these ways. Since the word homosexual was coined in 1869, scholars and scientists in a variety of fields have sought to understand same-sex intimacy. In A Natural History of Homosexuality, psychiatrist Francis Mondimore explores the complex landscape of sexual orientation. Synthesizing the latest research in biology, history, psychology, and anthropology, Mondimore first explains how homosexuality has been understood and defined from ancient times to the present.

Mondimore next reviews current biological research into the nature of sexual orientation and examines recent scientific findings on the role of heredity and hormones, as well as Simon LeVay's 1991 brain studies. He also discusses our current understanding of bisexuality and transgender phenomena. And he focuses on the process by which individuals come to identify themselves as homosexual, the sensitivity of children to their own sexual identities, and the psychological effects of the stigmatization of homosexuality on adolescents. Finally, Mondimore analyzes antihomosexual discrimination, from the arrest of Oscar Wilde to the Nazi persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. This far-reaching discussion includes a description of the ex-gay ministries and reparative therapy, the Stonewall riots and AIDS, ending with the emergence of the gay pride movement.

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