Abstract

The following document analyzes some of the journalistic perceptions that existed in Costa Rica regarding homosexuality between 1965 and the end of 1980. In order to do this, several news that appeared in the newspaper La República were analyzed. In these pieces of news, homosexuality had almost an exclusive place in the accidents and crimes reports. Homosexual men were portrayed not only with female attributes but, above all, with criminal characteristics. They were presented as dangerous beings for the judicial, political, moral, social, and religious system. In fact, prison and criminalization of the homosexual individual were necessary to produce this sexual identity. Marginally, general aspects of another character in the accidents and crimes reports, such as the satyr, will also be discussed. Thus, the homosexual in the crimes reports was perceived as a more complex criminal than other sexual subjects in the same section.

Keywords homosexuals; sexuality; history; Costa Rica; newspaper