American Psychiatric Association: Homosexuality Not a “Mental Illness”
In a major breakthrough for lesbian and gay rights, the American Psychiatric Association on this day removed the designation of homosexuality as a mental illness.
The designation had been a major stigma on same-sex relations. The American Psychological Association, a different professional group, removed its designation of homosexuality as unhealthy in 1975.
The first lesbian and gay rights movement in the world originated in Berlin, Germany, in the 1860s. This included the invention of the word “homosexuality.” Read Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (2014).
The American Psychiatric Association position today: “Is Homosexuality A Mental Disorder? No. All major professional mental health organizations have gone on record to affirm that homosexuality is not a mental disorder. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association’s Board of Trustees removed homosexuality from its official diagnostic manual, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (DSM II). The action was taken following a review of the scientific literature and consultation with experts in the field. The experts found that homosexuality does not meet the criteria to be considered a mental illness.”
Learn more at the APA website: http://www.psychiatry.org/lgbt-sexual-orientation
Read about the history of sex -and homosexuality– and the U.S. Constitution: Geoffrey R. Stone, Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century (2017)