The role of the “Neurology Committee” in the 1961 decriminalization of homosexuality in Hungary

Abstract

Our study focuses on the background of the decriminalization of consensual homosexual acts between adults in the 1961 Hungarian Penal Code by using recently discovered original archive material from 1958. We want to illustrate how otherwise “unsolvable” social issues can be solved by medicalization, i.e. rendering them under medical (in this case psychiatric) authority. Examining penal codes is a tangible aspect of socio-historically changing views on homosexuality because criminal laws tend to sanction breaches of norms that are (or are perceived to be) widely accepted in society. Consequently, criminalization of certain acts or activities can be interpreted as signalling the emphasized significance of certain social norms, in this case, heteronormativity. By examining the changing theoretical and practical interpretations supporting the (de)criminalization of homosexuality can highlight that already in the mid-20th century medical references were crucial in legal and social decisions regarding homosexual people and their relationships in Hungary (and elsewhere). This article introduces the changes proposed by the Neurology Committee of the Health Science Council in 1958 regarding the criminalization of homosexuality, leading to the decriminalization of consensual sexual acts between adult men in 1961. However, it should also be pointed out that it was the same committee that proposed to extend the criminalization of sexual activity between same-sex partners aged under 20 to women as well. Keywords: homosexuality, unnatural fornication, (de)criminalization, Hungary, archive research