Born this way : science, citizenship, and inequality in the American LGBTQ+ movement

**The story of how a biologically driven understanding of gender and sexuality became central to US LGBTQ+ political and legal advocacy.** Across protests and courtrooms, LGBTQ+ advocates argue that sexual and gender identities are innate. Oppositely, conservatives incite panic over “groomers” and a contagious “gender ideology” that corrupts susceptible children. Yet, as this debate rages on, the history of what first compelled the hunt for homosexuality’s biological origin story may hold answers for the queer rights movement’s future. __Born This Way__ tells the story of how a biologically based understanding of gender and sexuality became central to LGBTQ+ advocacy. Starting in the 1950s, activists sought out mental health experts to combat the pathologizing of homosexuality. As Joanna Wuest shows, these relationships were forged in subsequent decades alongside two broader, concurrent developments: the rise of an interest-group model of rights advocacy and an explosion of biogenetic and bio-based psychological research. The result is essential reading to fully understand LGBTQ+ activism today and how clashes over science remain crucial to equal rights struggles. "Across protests and courtrooms, LGBTQ activists argue that true sex or sexuality is encoded deep down, that it circulates in blood and is an expression of brain shapes and genetic codes. Their opponents incite panic over luring child groomers and a contagious "gender ideology" which corrupts the brains-and then bodies-of susceptible teenagers. In Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ Movement, Joanna Wuest tells the history of the LGBTQ rights movement, the modern scientific study of gender and sexuality, and the identity politics that formed at the nexus. She too reveals how conservative leaders have undermined science's ability to assist equal rights campaigns, reproductive rights, and climate change policies alike. Born This Way is at once a celebratory and cautionary tale, one which delineates a minority rights movement's impressive victories, its powerful and persuasive allies, and the ongoing assault on equality and science alike"-- Provided by publisher Contents Introduction Part I: Origins 1. The Science of Civil Rights: The Rise and Demise of Sexual Deviancy 2. Desire in the Throes of Power Gay Liberation, Psychiatry, and the Politics of Classification 3. “Why Is My Child Gay?” The Liberal Foundations of Born This Way 4. Immutability before the Gay Gene Biology and Civil Rights Litigation Part II: Evolutions and Adaptations 5. Rise of the Gay Gene Science, Law, Culture, and Hype 6. From Pathology to “Born Perfect” Marriage Equality and Conversion Therapy Bans 7. The Scientific Gaze in Transgender and Bisexual Politics Conclusion: Beyond Born This Way Fluid Desires, Fixed Identities, and Entrenched Inequalities Acknowledgments Notes Index