From Hormone Shots to Cruising Tips: Hungarian Experts and Homosexuality in Late State-Socialism

This paper is about a remarkable file, ‘Interviews with Homosexuals’, in the bequest of László Cseh-Szombathy (1925–2007), who was internationally renowned and one of Hungary's most celebrated sociologists. Looking at the ways in which the interviews and the conceptual framework of the question...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contemporary European history 2024-08, Vol.33 (3), p.834-848
Main Author: Kurimay, Anita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Attitudes
Communism
Decriminalization
Divorce
Experts
Forum
Gays & lesbians
Heterosexuality
Homophobia
Homosexuality
Interviews
Liberalization
Municipal archives
Political parties
Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Sexual behavior
Sexual Knowledge and Expertise in Europe's East
Sexual orientation
Sexuality
Socialism
Sociology
Stalinism
Transnationalism
University students
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:This paper is about a remarkable file, ‘Interviews with Homosexuals’, in the bequest of László Cseh-Szombathy (1925–2007), who was internationally renowned and one of Hungary's most celebrated sociologists. Looking at the ways in which the interviews and the conceptual framework of the questions asked by Cseh-Szombathy were crafted, along with the interviewees’ answers to those questions, the article investigates the interaction of sexual experts and male homosexuals in late socialist-state Hungary. The author contends that, at the same time as sexual experts had historically fuelled and contributed to homophobia, sexual experts during late state-socialism also became the primary agents who started to speak out against the pathologisation of homosexuality and played a crucial role in facilitating homosexual men's exploration of sexual identity and self-acceptance. The paper highlights how Hungarian sexological experts engaged in productive dialogue with their patients and interview subjects, which shaped sexological expertise on homosexuality.
ISSN:0960-7773
1469-2171
DOI:10.1017/S0960777322000947