On this page you will find resources which concern the history of medicine in relation to LGBTQ+ people, as well as resources concerning the history of intersex people (especially medical attitudes towards them).
This is a digitisation of a 1792 book of anatomy that includes descriptions and drawings of the genitalia of two "hermaphrodites" - one "in shape perfectly male" and another "whose shape was rather female than male."
This article explores the relationship between the work of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and LGBTQ+ issues, including intersex people. "Charles Darwin’s published and unpublished writings contain a plethora of references to sex variations, including intersexualities (‘hermaphroditism’), transformations of sex and non-heteronormative sexual behaviours."
An interview with American jazz singer 'Little' Jimmy Scott (1925–2014), who lived with Kallman's syndrome, a condition which causes delayed or absent puberty.
This page on the website of the Intersex Society of North America contains a number of posts about the history of intersex people and medical views on intersexuality.
"In eighteenth-century Europe, medical writers rejected the existence of human hermaphrodites as contrary to reason. This paper examines the underlying logic of this “rationalization” through textual analysis of James Parsons’ 1741 'Mechanical and Critical Enquiry Into the Nature of Hermaphrodites'."
"This article traces the history of medieval canon (and Roman) law on ‘hermaphrodites’ as a third sex, bodily different from both men and women. Contrary to what has been claimed, there is no evidence for hermaphrodites being persecuted in the Middle Ages, and the learned laws did certainly not provide any basis for such persecution. The legal status of hermaphrodites was discussed regularly, and canon lawyers were clearly aware of contemporary theology and natural philosophy."
This is an article produced by GLADD, an organisation that represents LGBTQ+ doctors and dentists, as well as medical and dental students across the UK. It looks at the history of LGBTQ+ doctors and dentists, drawing on material from the GLADD archives.
