James George Kiernan (18 June 1852 – 1 July 1923) was an American psychiatrist, prominent in American

gay history Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from requiring all males to engage in same-sex relationships to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it throu ...

for the first recorded use of the terms "

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

" and "

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

" in 1892.

Jonathan Ned Katz Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938) is an American historian of human sexuality who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. His works focus on the idea, rooted in social constructionism, that t ...

, historian of the American gay and lesbian experience, cites Kiernan's initial attribution of perversion to the term "heterosexual." Kiernan went on to write of a variety of topics, e.g.

Mary MacLane Mary MacLane (May 1, 1881 – ''c''. August 6, 1929) was a controversial Canadian-born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing. MacLane was known as the "Wild Woman of Butte".Wat ...

's disciple Viola Larsen, who stole a horse and wrote romantic letters to other girls, as an example of child precocity and possible genius. Kiernan also notably testified in support of the insanity defense at the trial of

Charles J. Guiteau Charles Julius Guiteau ( ; September 8, 1841June 30, 1882) was an American man who assassinated James A. Garfield, president of the United States, on July 2, 1881. Guiteau falsely believed he had played a major role in Garfield's election vic ...

, who assassinated President Garfield in 1881. Kiernan was born in New York and died at his home in Chicago.

References

External links

* http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Kiernan:_%22Heterosexual,%22_%22Homosexual,%22_May_1892 1852 births 20th-century American psychologists 1923 deaths People from New York City 20th-century American physicians American people of Irish descent {{US-psychologist-stub