Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality [Paperback]

Simon LeVay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262621193 | ISBN-13: 978-0262621199 | Publication Date: June 6, 1997

What makes people gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual? And who cares? Written by one of the leading scientists in the research of sexual orientation, Queer Science looks at how scientific discoveries about homosexuality influence society's attitude toward gays and lesbians, beginning with the theories of the German sexologist and gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld and culminating with the latest discoveries in brain science, genetics, endocrinology, and cognitive psychology.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The relationship between science and society, particularly concerning research into homosexuality, is the subject of this book from Simon LeVay, whose 1991 report on an observed difference in brain structures between gay and heterosexual men is one of the starting points for Chandler Burr's book, A Separate Creation. LeVay recaps that research here, but within the context of a broader history that begins in 19th-century Germany and goes on to include the Kinsey report as well as contemporary gene identification. LeVay combines material from various scientific disciplines with a clarity that makes us think that much harder about the social and cultural issues to which that material has been linked, issues which address, without necessarily defining, the nature of gay identity.

From Publishers Weekly

LeVay (City of Friends), best known for his 1991 study on differences in the brains of straight and gay men, here chronicles the history of the myriad attempts to explain possible biological origins of homosexuality. Most interesting is his survey of research in Berlin at the turn of the century. Before the word "homosexual" was used, the German jurist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) was the first person to declare gays, or "urnings" (followers or descendants of Uranus), a distinct class of people from heterosexuals, or "dionings" (from Diana). Ulrichs thought that gay minds developed in one male or female direction, while their bodies developed in an opposite-sex direction. Magnus Hirschfield expanded these theories into his notions of "a third sex," until Kinsey proposed the concept of a universal continuum of sexual desire. In separate chapters, LeVay chronicles theories and experiments regarding prenatal hormone levels (androgens and estrogens), genes and brain structure, as well as attempts to "cure" people of homosexuality, ranging from the merely psychoanalytical to the grotesquely surgical, such as testes transplantation. LeVay deftly translates biological arcana for the layperson but also has a full grasp on historical information?both nonmedical (the activist practice of "outing" closeted homosexuals was initiated by the anarchist Adolf Brand in fin de siecle Berlin) and medical (in WW II, the U.S. Army tried treating a unit of 300 gay men with testosterone injections, unexpectedly causing "the worst homosexual problem" because they increased rather than modified the intensity of the men's sex drives).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (June 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262621193
• ISBN-13: 978-0262621199
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #879,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon LeVay is a British-born neuroscientist turned writer. He is best known for a 1991 study, published in Science, which reported on a difference in brain structure between gay and straight men. He has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute in San Diego, but he now lives in Los Angeles. He has written several books on sex, including a college textbook titled Human Sexuality (now in its third edition), and most recently Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation. Once a fanatical bicycle racer, LeVay continues to ride his bicycle though at a more sober pace. He is intolerant of creationists and lactose.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very sensible and objective survey, July 28, 2004

By 

Peter McCluskey (San Bruno, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality (Hardcover)

This book analyzes scientific, historical, and political issues associated with homosexuality in a very careful and thoughtful style which does an unusually good job of keeping the author's opinions separate from his factual claims and avoiding any claims that he can't justify.
The main drawbacks of the book are that it isn't very exciting and didn't tell me much that seemed new.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book yet on the origins of sexual orientation, December 31, 1998

By 

Michael Bailey - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality (Paperback)

I have read all of the books on the topic, and although there are some fine ones ("Science of Desire" comes to mind), this is the most comprehensive. LeVay is a terrific writer too, clear, balanced, but appropriately opinionated.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HISTORY OF RESEARCH INTO HOMOSEXUALITY, September 25, 2010

By 

James L. Park "James Leonard Park" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality (Paperback)

Simon LeVay
Queer Science:
The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality

(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996) 364 pages
(ISBN: 0-262-12199-9; hardback)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ76.25L497 1996)

Queer Science is a good summary of research
into the 'causes' of homosexuality:
historic speculations beginning in the middle 1800s;
Freud and his followers; learning theory; brain structure;
hormones, pre-natal stress; genes.
LeVay is a careful scientist rather than an ideologue
determined to defend a preconceived belief.
He concludes that the research has still not found
the 'causes' or 'sources' of homosexuality.
Highly recommended for anyone interested
in the question of why some people are gay.
We hope for newer editions of this book as the research continues.

Find other books on the Internet: "Best Books on Sexual Orientation".

James Leonard Park, author of
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology.