Social Work with People Practicing Same-Sex ... - ILGA Europe

1 Alfred Kinsley performed 2 studies:
”sexual Behavior in the Human
Male” and ”sexual Behavior in
the Human Female”. Both studies
demonstrated that homosexual
behaviour was quite common in
people of both sexes.
2 On May 17, 1991 homosexuality
was excluded from ICD-10,
(International Statistical
Classification of Diseases and
Related Health Problems). This
document is used as a basic
statistical classification standard in
the health care. On a regular basis
(once every 10 years) it is reviewd
under the leadership of WHO. ICD
is a regulatory document ensuring
the uniformity of methodological
approaches and international
comparability of materials.
3 Lottes and Kontula, 2000, р. 14–
15
8
the freedom of meetings, organization of public events, meetings and communication,
etc.). For example, there is no governmental programme for LGBT, no community centres,
TV and radio programmes, newspapers and magazines, in which this community could
have discussed their everyday issues.
What does science say?
Thanks to the large-scale research the leading scientists of the world share the idea
that treating lesbians and gays as an anomaly and deviation is inadmissible. One of the
first and most known studies that pointed at the scale and prevalence of homosexual
behaviour and feelings in the society was Alfred Kinsley research performed in the
USA in 1930–1950-s 1 . Today the popular approaches to explaining the phenomenon
of homosexuality included explanations based on genetics, hormonal development
studies, evolutionary biology, anthropology, sociology, gender theory and so on. But
all they contribute to dispelling the myth about abnormality of homosexuality. Modern
psychiatrists and sexologists are concerned not about the issue of changing sexual
orientation for the “correct“ one, but about how to help gays and lesbians overcome
their social and psychological problems related to their life in the society where not
everybody would positively react to disclosure of their homosexuality.
What do the United Nations and European Community say?
Tolerance to homosexual, bisexual and transgender people is norm of public behaviour
and a legal requirement in the modern democratic societies. A number of national
and international organizations are actively opposing the prosecution of lesbians and
gays. American Psychiatric Association excluded homosexuality from the list of mental
disorders back in 1973. Since 1991 the World Health Organization at the UN also had not
been considering homosexuality as a disease or personality disorder 2 . The Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly, in which Ukraine is a member since 1995, had adopted
a special Recommendation № 1474 ”situation of lesbians and gays in Council of Europe
member states”, which has addressed the issues, in particular, in Ukraine. This thorough
document indicates that “Nowadays, homosexuals are still all too often subjected to
discrimination or violence, for example, at school or in the street. They are perceived as
a threat to the rest of society, as though there were a danger of homosexuality spreading
once it became recognised”. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly recommended
“to include sexual orientation among the prohibited grounds for discrimination” ….
“considering it to be one of the most odious forms of discrimination”.
The UN-supported international conferences, such as the Cairo International
Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the 4-th World Conference on
Women in Beijing (1995) contributed to significant changes in the interpretation of
the very definition of a sexual norm. In 1997, at the Congress of the World Association
for Sexology in Valencia, approved the Valencia “Declaration on Sexual Rights”, which
stated that: ”sexuality is an integral part of the personality of every human being.
Its full development depends upon the satisfaction of basic human needs such as the
desire for contact, intimacy, emotional expression, pleasure, tenderness and love…Sexual
freedom encompasses the possibility for individuals to express their full sexual potential.
However, this excludes all forms of sexual coercion, exploitation and abuse at any time
and situations in life” 3 .
Conclusions
Thus, homosexual relationships are part of sexual repertoire of a human being and, as
well as any contacts between the adults, that occur on the basis of mutual consent and
without coercion, they should not give rise to aggression and condemnation, especially
on the part of health workers, psychologists and social workers. Nobody has the right
to put the pressure on an individual if it is related to changes in his or her sexual