Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach wh the Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach a major U.S.-based profsnal league to e out as gay.
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JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
By Dr. Margie Nichols - In 1973, homosexualy was removed om the DSM, the psychiatric ‘Bible, as a mental illns. Many LGBT people don’t fully unrstand the cril role that polil actn agast the mental health muny played advancg lbian and gay rights. * gay dsm 5 *
Nearly 50 years ago, LGBTQ+ activists achieved what was lled the “greatt gay victory” of the time: succsfully phg members of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) to remove the diagnosis of homosexualy om the official classifitn of mental illns, the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM). Declassifitn, as the years-long effort was known, culmated 1973, when May, LGBTQ+ voic were heard at the annual APA nference, and later the APA Board of Tste voted to remove homosexualy om the DSM. The classifitn of mental illns was born om the legacy of multiple systems of power: the Amerin legal system crimalized homosexual behavr; feral and state ernments had not yet dified protectns for queer and trans people seekg employment and hog; and an sistence on heteronormative genr rol stigmatized anyone who viated om their role as a “woman” or a “man.
The mpaign to remove the “homosexualy” diagnosis om the DSM began earnt the 1960s, backed by a growg civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights movement across the untry.
Dubbed the “homophile” movement, gay and lbian rights anizatns major ci like New York Cy, San Francis, and Philalphia started to prsure elected officials and lnch public mpaigns for LGBTQ+ visibily and rights.
* gay dsm 5 *
Activists ramped up their efforts after years of mpaigng om the outsi: they cid to go straight to the APA nferenc where practners attend panels and discsns of psychiatry and psychology—and uld prs to classify homosexualy. Karla Jay, a lbian activist who participated disptg a panel discsn on “sex problems” that advoted shock treatment to “cure” homosexualy, said that prottors shouted to the APA members, “off of the uch and to the streets! In 1972, at the first nference that actually featured a panel discsn on homosexualy led by LGBTQ+ people, a gay practner, John Fryer, ttified on behalf of the classifitn mpaign.
“Pull your urage up by your bootstraps and disver ways which you as homosexual psychiatrists n be appropriately volved movements which attempt to change the attus of both homosexuals and heterosexuals toward homosexually, ” Fryer plead. One of the more famo speech offered at the May 1973 APA nference Honolulu was by a gay activist named Ronald Gold, who told the APA members, “Stop , you’re makg me sick.