Gay Conversn Therapy's Disturbg 19th-Century Origs | HISTORY

IT IS NOW 50 YEARS SCE GAY PEOPLE WERE “CURED"

How beg gay went om a mental disorr to a human-rights movement. * cured from gay *

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s removal of homosexualy om s Diagnostic Manual 1973. It led to an important shift mental health practic as clicians stopped askg qutns like “What homosexualy? An openly gay physician, psychiatrist, or other mental-health profsnal uld lose their state license to practice.

Psychiatric diagnosg of homosexualy as a mental disorr began the 19th century, most promently the work of Richard von Krafft-Ebg, who thought was due to “generatn” of the nervo system—generacy beg a now-disproven medil theory of that era.

I WAS 19, GAY AND READY TO BE ‘CURED’ BY NVERSN THERAPY

Until 1973, doctors tomatilly classified every gay man and lbian as mentally ill. CURED tells the David-vers-Goliath story of the activists who challenged this diagnosis — and won. * cured from gay *

Sigmund Frd directly disagreed wh Krafft-Ebg’s ncept of homosexualy as an illns and stead saw as a “velopmental arrt, ” a kd of psychologil immatury.

However, by the middle of the 20th century, the belief that homosexualy was a mental disorr was the prevailg view among psychiatrists and most of Frd’s psychoanalytic followers. Th, 1952, when the APA published the first edn of s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual (DSM-I), classified “homosexualy” as a “socpathic personaly disturbance.

The psychiatric perspectiv on homosexualy were drawn om a skewed sample of patients seekg treatment for homosexualy or other difficulti and studi of prison populatns. They found homosexualy to be more mon the general populatn than was generally believed—a fdg at odds wh psychiatric claims of the time that homosexualy was extremely rare the general populatn.

RODRIGO DUTERTE SAYS HE ‘CURED’ HIMSELF FROM BEG GAY

The Philipp print, llg a polil rival gay, said he ed to be gay himself but was cured wh the help of “betiful women.” * cured from gay *

All this changed the wake of the 1969 Stonewall rts New York Cy, an event that energized gay and lbian activists who believed psychiatric diagnosis to be a major ntributor to anti-homosexual social stigma. A 1971 panel, entled “Gay is Good” featured Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, and Ron Gold, who explaed to psychiatrists, many of whom were hearg for the first time, the stigma ed by the “homosexualy” diagnosis. H Anonymo, a “homosexual psychiatrist" who, given the realistic fear of adverse profsnal nsequenc for g out at that time, disguised his te inty om the dience and spoke of the discrimatn gay psychiatrists faced their own profsn.

The APA also engaged a slow, ternal liberative procs to nsir the qutn of whether homosexualy should rema a psychiatric diagnosis. After notg some humoro aspects of historil diagnos, he nclud, “To ntue to classify homosexualy as a disorr is as valid today as was the diagnosis of masturbatn the 1942 edn.

Havg arrived at a novel fn of mental disorr—one that would change future DSM edns until the prent—the mtee agreed that homosexualy per se was not one. It should be noted that psychiatrists did not vote, as is often reported the popular prs, on whether homosexualy should rema a diagnosis. APA’s diagnostic revisn was the begng of the end of anized medice’s official participatn the social stigmatizatn of homosexualy.

5 SURPRISG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

For example, 1990, the World Health Organizatn removed homosexualy per se om the Internatnal Classifitn of Diseas (ICD-10). Whout a medil or scientific ratnalizatn for discrimatn, bat about homosexualy gradually shifted away om medice and psychiatry and to the moral and polil realms of relign, ernment, the ary, the media, and tnal stutns. The reasong behd acceptance went like this: If homosexualy is no longer nsired an illns, if one do not lerally accept biblil prohibns agast , and if gay people are able and prepared to functn as productive cizens, then what is wrong wh beg gay?