The Homosexualization of America

The Homosexualization of America, The Americanization of the Homosexual is a 1982 book about LGBT rights in the United States by the gay rights activist Dennis Altman, in which the author discusses the emergence of gay people as a minority group. The book received positive reviews, crediting Altman with providing a useful discussion of gay people in the United States.

Altman discusses the increased visibility of gay people in the United States and conflicts over gay rights issues there, basing his account partly on his visits to the country. His two major themes are, "the emergence of homosexuals as a new minority with our own culture, life style, political movement, and claim to legitimacy, and the impact of this minority on the broader society." He argues that gay people have come to see themselves as being similar to an ethnic group and to "claim recognition on the basis of this analogy", and that the United States is being "homosexualized", a process that involves, "the adoption of styles and fashions associated with an increasingly visible and assertive gay minority" and is "changing American society in important ways", such as the gentrification of some urban areas. He identifies Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud as influences, arguing that while is not necessary to adopt all of their views, Marx's ideas are essential to discussing social change and that Freud's ideas are essential to discussing human sexuality.

He writes that by the beginning of the 1980s, some gay men had abandoned the "effeminate style" that had previously characterized gay men and adopted a style involving "a theatrically masculine appearance: denim, leather, and the ubiquitous key rings dangling from the belt." He sees this style as typified by the "super-macho image" of the Village People. He addresses the way homosexuality has been dealt with by newspapers and the film industry. He writes that the American film industry has "had the most difficulty coming to terms with homosexuality" of all media in the United States, and that it usually depicts gay people as either villains or victims. He discusses films, such as Windows (1980), Cruising (1980), Fame (1980), Making Love (1982), Personal Best (1982), and Partners (1982), with gay themes. He discusses books dealing with homosexuality such as the psychologist Alan P. Bell and the sociologist Martin S. Weinberg's Homosexualities (1978) and Bell et al.′s Sexual Preference (1981), offering criticisms of both works. He also includes a chapter-length discussion of, "Sexual Freedom and the End of Romance".

The Homosexualization of America, The Americanization of the Homosexual was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1982. It was published in a paperback edition by Beacon Press in 1983 as The Homosexualization of America.

The Homosexualization of America received positive reviews from David L. Keyes in Library Journal and from Kirkus Reviews.

Keyes credited Altman with providing "an excellent synthesis of a wide variety of gay/lesbian issues in a satisfying blend of research and personal experience", and with showing that gay people in the United States have adapted the political process to their advantage by focusing on lobbying for civil rights, and that American society has undergone a change in its sexual behavior and values.

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book was a "discerning account of the coming of age of the gay community (with lesser attention to lesbian women)". It expressed doubt about Altman's view that gay people are "pioneers in human relationships", but considered his bibliography "invaluable for the writings of the last decade" and credited him with covering "difficult ground with intelligence and care."

The Homosexualization of America received a positive review from the gay rights activist Ken Popert in The Body Politic. The book was also reviewed by the critic Felice Picano in the New York Native and by The Advocate.