Homophobia and the moral authority of medicine

This essay identifies ways in which medicine expresses and legitimizes homophobic values. Examples of such homophobia are identified in the treatment of people with HIV, moralistic interpretations of people with AIDS, certain conceptions about ways in which HIV is transmitted, media representations of AIDS, and even in the way in which medicine's "objectivity" reinforces a moral view inimical to gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. It is concluded that the notion of medical objectivity and traditional conceptions of the ethics of health care hinder an appreciation of the ways in which medicine presumes and perpetuates homophobic values.