It’s Past Time for WHO to Depathologize Homosexuality

[Omaha Steve]

I also have this other post in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025482600



http://www.care2.com/causes/its-past-time-for-who-to-depathologize-homosexuality.html

by Steve WilliamsSeptember 2, 201410:00 am

While all other mainstream medical bodies recognize that homosexuality does not in and of itself cause mental health problems, the World Health Organization still implies that it does, and that needs to change.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) declassified homosexuality in 1973, a move that most other medical bodies followed. This would eventually help end the stigma that had reigned up until that point that classified homosexuality as a form of psychological illness or weakness, thus helping to shift the debate toward one about equal rights.

At the time the APA changed the classification to one known as “sexual orientation disturbance,” with gay rights supporters calling the change a political compromise that was significant but still problematic. That same classification was later changed to ego-dystonic homosexuality/sexual orientation, which attempted to capture and treat anxiety in people who are struggling to cope with their sexuality.

That classification was removed in 1987 (in DSM-III-R), with “persistent and marked distress about sexuality” shifted to the section ”sexual disorder not otherwise specified,” thus largely removing the pathological stigma that could have been attached to homosexuality or bisexuality. However, this is where the World Health Organization and the APA parted ways.

FULL story at link.