Hiding in Plain Sight

Abstract

Mounting evidence that sexual minority status is linked to stigma, stress, and health disparities necessitates critical analysis of medical sex education. In this article, I use ethnographic data to show how normative understandings of sexuality were produced at a top twenty medical school in the United States. Although non-normative sexualities were never overtly denigrated within the curriculum at Buena Vista Medical School, a hidden curriculum of heteronormativity repeatedly positioned some sexualities as normal, natural, and obvious, while others were quietly excluded. This research shows the particular utility of ethnographic methods for revealing how sexuality-related stigma may be produced even within settings in which participants are motivated to help others and have been exposed to norms of egalitarianism that discourage overt homophobia and sexuality-related discrimination. This research also demonstrates possibilities for closer communication between the sociological subfields of medicine and sexuality.