Where has the queer family gone in MCH?

Homosexuality has long been within MCH's purview. It is visible articles on “the gynecology of homosexuality” by the founder of the National Committee on Maternal Health, in attempts to understand homosexuality as a “congenital abnormality,” in the study of “psychopathological” family environments, and in population-based concerns over sex hygiene. This paper traces the historical ties between MCH and the study of homosexuality and places particular emphasis on past interventions for “queer families,” where, it was said, overbearing mothers created the “pathogenic” conditions for homosexuality.

These “queer families” of the 1940s-1960s provide us with a historical context for understanding the invisibility of modern queer family trends: namely, the growing number of same-sex couples having and rearing children, particularly in the U.S. South.

The historical relationship between maternal and child health and homosexuality is complex. This paper first systematically reviews the early search for urological and gynecological “symptoms” and the view of homosexuality as a congenital abnormality. Second, this paper reviews the significant influence of psychoanalysis and the resulting focus on family dynamics as etiology. Third, this paper reviews the population-based concern for sex hygiene in the 1930s and the protection of the American family during the 1950s-60s. This third era is reconstructed through the medical discourse and the deployment of health research in popular periodicals. Even Good Housekeeping published articles such as, “When a mother discovers the agonizing truth…OUR SON WAS DIFFERENT”.

From this history, suggestions for contemporary policy to reduce disparities between queer and non-queer families are put forward.