Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • Article

Can our sexual desires be transformed?

In the 1950s, many psychiatrists thought that homosexuality could be reformed. One found that it couldn’t – and his discoveries led to a change in the law.

  • Article

The indelible harm caused by conversion therapy

With first-hand evidence from two powerful testimonies, neurologist Jules Montague explores the destructive history of conversion therapy, a punitive treatment designed to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality.

  • Article

Getting around the rules of sex education

What should we and shouldn’t we teach our teens about sex, inside and outside of the classroom?

  • Article

The shocking ‘treatment’ to make lesbians straight

Being a lesbian has never been a crime in the UK, but 50 years ago, some psychologists experimented with treatments to try to ‘cure’ women of their orientation. Find out what this involved.

All stories (10)

Images

  • Five naked men stand behind each other with their arms splayed and knees bent representing an advertisement for Gay health '95 3rd Symposium on homosexuality. Colour lithograph by Wolfgang Bauer and ComDesign Werbegeagentur.
  • Five naked men stand behind each other with their arms splayed and knees bent representing an advertisement for Gay health '95 3rd Symposium on homosexuality. Colour lithograph by Wolfgang Bauer and ComDesign Werbegeatentur.
  • A park keeper is complaining to a young woman about "pansies" (homosexuals). Colour process print, 195-, after D. McGill, 193-.
  • A park keeper is complaining to a young woman about "pansies" (homosexuals). Colour process print, 195-, after D. McGill, 193-.
  • A hand behind a microphone with erect penises as fingers, the central finger wearing a condom; advertising safe sex for lesbians and homosexuals. Colour lithograph for the SAD Schorer Stichting.
  • Myth, only prostitutes, homosexuals and 'slack' people go to sexual health clinics so its not for me : Fact, people who use sexual health clinics are people with the sense to get tested / Shaka Services.
  • Myth, only prostitutes, homosexuals and 'slack' people go to sexual health clinics so its not for me : Fact, people who use sexual health clinics are people with the sense to get tested / Shaka Services.
  • A group of gay men in a protest march about AIDS prevention with quotes about AIDS and a declaration of 10 points about the rights of those with HIV; an advertisement by the Movimiento Homosexual de Lima. Colour lithograph, ca. 1995.
  • A black and white target circle with a pink centre and the message in French: "Homosexuals: 20,000 live in anger" representing an advertisement for a gay pride event organised by ACT UP on Saturday 22 June, 1996. Colour lithograph.
  • A red rose with an open mouth baring fangs at the centre, surrounded by blackened thorny rose leaves, representing a response to insults directed at homosexuals; an advertisement for a 'Queer-Party' on 31 December 1994 at S036 in Berlin. Colour lithograph.
All images (289)

Catalogue

All works (1.8K)