James G. Kiernan

Who is James G. Kiernan?

James G. Kiernan was an American psychologist, prominent in American gay history for the first recorded use of the terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" in 1892. Jonathan Ned Katz, historian of the American gay and lesbian experience, cites Kiernan's initial attribution of perversion to the term "heterosexual." Kiernan went on to write of a variety of topics, e.g. Mary MacLane's disciple Viola Larsen, who stole a horse and wrote romantic letters to other girls, as an example of child precocity and possible genius.