Queer Health & History | UCI Exhibits Site

“I grew up in California and had the great luck to have parents who supported me when I came out as queer. Still, very little LGBTQ+ history was taught in schools. Seeing how much information that has been produced and distributed by the government makes me hopeful that eventually we can teach this important topic in schools all across America. Homosexuality was such a controversial topic for so much of US history that having so much research and documentation on it seems special. It is a way to say, ‘We are here. We've always been here.’”

− Student Curator Kat Hansell ’24 (BA in Drama)

“Not the Law's Business? An Examination of Homosexuality, Abortion, Prostitution, Narcotics, and Gambling in the United States,” by Gilbert Geis.

Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency, US Dept. of Health and Human Services. 1972.

Discussing whether many controversial areas should be criminalized in the United States, this report explores whether acts of “private morality and immorality” should be regulated by law.

“Several NIH Institutes Involved in Tracking Down Cause of AIDS,” by Joyce McCarthy.

News & Features from NIH, US Dept. of Health and Human Services. April 1983.

This early scientific study about AIDS was published just a month before the first research paper identifying key traits of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Kat’s Take: “This is a monumental document discussing the first research performed about AIDS, when this was still a highly controversial concept.”

page scan of research on brain hormones involved in sexual development

“Brain Hormone Halts Premature Sexual Development,” by Susan Johnson.

News & Features from NIH, US Dept. of Health and Human Services. January 1982.

In a research note, NIH researchers describe a new treatment for slowing and even reversing premature puberty in young girls.

Kat’s Take: “While not strictly relating to queer people and research, this early form of hormone therapy would later help hundreds of thousands of transgender kids from going through puberty before they're ready.”

“How Getting High Can Get You AIDS.”

National Institute on Drug Abuse, US Dept. of Health and Human Services. 1994.

Published 11 years after HIV was first identified, this pamphlet informs teenagers of the dangers of drugs and unprotected sex.

Kat’s Take: “Honestly, I just found this very fun, and I like that it emphasizes the options to both refuse sex and use a condom to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like HIV.”

cover of booklet on medicine for the public

Medicine for the Public: Sexually Transmitted Diseases, by Thomas C. Quinn.

US National Institutes of Health. 1993.

Published as part of a series to help the public learn more about their bodies, this booklet lists the causes, symptoms, treatments, and prevention of AIDS, chlamydia, herpes, and other STDs.

Kat’s Take: “I think we always need more literature about STDs so they become less taboo.”