Gay rights – News, Rearch and Analysis – The Conversatn – page 1

Contents:

• GLOBAL REGNN OF HUMAN RIGHTS FOR LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE
• GAY RIGHTS
• MENTAL HEALTH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) YOUTH
• LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS
• FROM GAY LIBERATN TO MARRIAGE EQUALY
• ARTICL ON GAY RIGHTS

GLOBAL REGNN OF HUMAN RIGHTS FOR LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE

”44 The UN Human Rights Commtee, which monors pliance wh the Internatnal Covenant on Civil and Polil Rights, found that laws punishg adult nsensual homosexual acts vlate the Covenant’s guarante of nondiscrimatn and privacy and held that discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn is prohibed unr Articl 2 and 26 of the Covenant. ” She next talked about the nstant fear experienced by LGBT people, “… fear of the police and officials wh the power to arrt and ta simply bee of our sexual orientatn … fear that our fai will disown … [that we will be] forced out of [our] fay hom … wh nowhere else to go, and th bee homels, have no food, and rort to sex work orr to survive … fear wh our muni, where we face nstant harassment and vlence om neighbors and others [while the] … homophobic attacks go unpunished by thori.

”Then Eddy spoke about the nnectn between the nial of LGBT existence and the risk of HIV transmissn: “Acrdg to a recent rearch study published December 2003 by the Sierra Leone Lbian and Gay Associatn llaboratn wh Health Way Sierra Leone, 90% of men who have sex wh men also have sex wh women, eher their wiv or girliends. “We pos that this is bee the Inter facilat workg and people-to-people munitn, which turn n brg about shifts societal views as people learn that people who are close to them may be gay, ” says Jenifer Whten Woodrg, a polil scientist at the Universy of Massachetts, Lowell, who helped nduct the study. They found that “relig participants exposed to the quotatn attributed to Reverend Lawrence were more likely to say that they supported marriage equaly, more likely to say that they would likely vote for a ballot measure their state tablishg marriage equaly, and more likely to approve of gay and lbian parentg.

The accatn of g outdated material and viatg to realms beyond the spe of one's expertise impli two thgs; first, impli that there actually is rmatn that is more up-to-date than what the nun prented on the topic of homosexualy, and sendly impli that there are credible experts who are more qualified to teach or speak on the topic of homosexualy. Hence, is necsary to provi a summary and analysis of that purported up-to-date scientific evince which supports the claim that homosexualy is not a mental two groups that are typilly emed thorative and credible experts on mental disorrs the Uned Stat are the Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn; th, I will prent their stanc on homosexualy and then analyze the “scientific evince” that they claim supports their stanc. As a rult of their ficienci, the credibily of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn and the APA, at least their claims regardg human sexualy, is lled to Amerin Psychologil Associatn and the Amerin Psychiatric AssociatnI will beg by scribg the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and I will then prent their stanc on the topic of homosexualy.

GAY RIGHTS

Dog so will provi more evince of the stance of both the APA and the Amerin Psychiatric Two Associatns’ Stance on HomosexualyThe APA wr:Same-sex sexual attractns, behavr, and orientatns per se are normal and posive variants of human sexualy— other words, they do not dite eher mental or velopmental disorrs. )Aled KseyThe APA Task Force document proceeds by cg two books wrten by Aled Ksey 1948 and 1953 (Sexual Behavr the Human Male and Sexual Behavr the Human Female):At the same time that the pathologizg views of homosexualy Amerin psychiatry and psychology were beg dified, untervailg evince was accumulatg that this stigmatizg view was ill found. Ford and Beach also “pot out that among non-human primat both mal and femal engage homosexual activy” (Gentile and Miller 2009), the APA thors suggt that bee two rearchers 1951 found that homosexual sex is observed some humans and animals then the ncln follows that there is “nothg unnatural about .

My foc for this paper is the irrelevant endpot—“adjtment”—ed by Hooker as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is normal; I foc on that endpot bee as of 2014 “adjtment” is still the endpot ced by the major associatns as scientific evince supportg the claim that homosexualy is a “normal variatn of human sexual orientatn. The brief then offers a few more catns of scientific evince supportg that claim; one article ced is a review study om 1978 which also looked at “adjtment” and “nclus that fdgs to date have not monstrated that the homosexual dividual is any ls psychologilly adjted than his heterosexual unterpart” (Hart et al.

MENTAL HEALTH LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) YOUTH

” Gonsrek claims that bee homosexuals are siar to heterosexuals measur of prsn, self-teem, relatnship disrd, and sexual disrd, tomatilly follows that homosexualy is not a disorr, as he not: “The general ncln is clear: The studi overwhelmgly suggt that homosexualy per se is not related to psychopathology or psychologil adjtment” (Gonsrek 1991, 115–36). Hence, there are multiple mental disorrs which measurg adjtment has no relevance whatsoever to the mental disorr; this is a major ficiency the lerature ed as scientific evince to support the ncln that homosexualy is not a mental is a signifint fdg, although I am not the first to mentn the problem wh diagnosg mental disorrs by lookg at distrs, social functng, or other endpots that are clud unr the terms “adjtment” and “adaptatn. Ronald Bayer summarized the events surroundg the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's (1973) cisn by notg that Spzer'srtricted fn of mental disorrs, articulated after he had cid that homosexualy had been appropriately classified, entailed two elements: For a behavr to be termed a psychiatric disorr, had to be regularly acpanied by subjective distrs and/or “some generalized impairment social effectivens or functng.

In orr to be nsistent wh their logic ed to normalize homosexualy, they mt normalize all other sexual actns that stimulate one to the pot of asm that do not e bad measurements of “adjtment” or rult impaired social functng; is te that they also allow a diagnosis of a sexual disorr if a viance “harm” to another, but that is only if there is lack of nsent. Unfortunately, fatally flawed reasong has served as the basis for “rigoro” and “scientific evince” supportg the claim that homosexualy is not a mental disorr but is rather a normal variant of human sexual nnot nclu (wh Aled Ksey) that a human behavr is normal simply bee is more mon than prevly assumed—otherwise all human behavrs, cludg serial killg, would have to be nsired normal. Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels.

”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze. That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D. ”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue.

LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS

They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn.

Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri. In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985.

FROM GAY LIBERATN TO MARRIAGE EQUALY

But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt  Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn.

Yet the first public and rearch attentn to young LGBTs foced explicly on mental health: A small number of studi the 1980s began to intify ncerng rat of reported suicidal behavr among “gay” youth, and a US feral report on “gay youth suici” (Gibson 1989) beme ntroversial both polics and rearch (Rsell 2003). Generally, Meyer (2003) poss three strs procs om distal to proximal: (a) objective or external strsors, which clu stctural or stutnalized discrimatn and direct terpersonal teractns of victimizatn or prejudice; (b) one’s expectatns that victimizatn or rejectn will occur and the vigilance related to the expectatns; and (c) the ternalizatn of negative social attus (often referred to as ternalized homophobia). As a rult, lbian and gay youth livg unti wh fewer sexual orientatn and genr inty (SOGI)-specific antibullyg polici are twice as likely to report past-year suici attempts than youth livg areas where the polici were more monplace (Hatzenbuehler & Key 2013) wh school environments, is also important to nsir youths’ muny ntext.

ARTICL ON GAY RIGHTS

E., those wh more protectns for same-sex upl, greater number of registered Democrats, prence of gay-straight allianc (GSAs) schools, and SOGI-specific nondiscrimatn and antibullyg polici] are ls likely to attempt suici even after ntrollg for other risk ditors, such as a history of physil abe, prsive symptomatology, drkg behavrs, and peer victimizatn (Hatzenbuehler 2011). At one extreme, the Tennsee legislature failed to pass the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would have ma illegal for teachers to discs homosexualy wh stunts; at the other, the “Mental Health Servic for At-Risk Youth” bill California allows youth ag 12 to 17 to nsent to mental health treatment whout parental permissn and was signed to enable LGBT youth to seek mental health servic pennt of parental nsent.

For example, a study of 77 gay male llege stunts showed that young gay men’s psychosocial functng (cludg openns wh their sexual orientatn) was improved through exprsive wrg that targeted gay-related strs, pecially for those who reported lower social support or who wrote about more severe topics (Pachankis & Goldied 2010). E., substance e)Genr intyone’s sense and subjective experience of genr (malens/femalens), which may or may not be nsistent wh birth sexSexual orientatnendurg sense of emotnal, sexual attractn to others based on their sex/genrSOGIsexual orientatn and genr intyGSAGay-Straight Alliance school clubSexual intyself-label to scribe one’s sexual orientatn, such as lbian, gay, bisexual, or straightCBOmuny-based anizatnFootnotDISCLOSURE STATEMENTThe thors are not aware of any affiliatns, memberships, fundg, or fancial holdgs that might be perceived as affectg the objectivy of this review.

1(p856)As we review the statements today, is hard to not be imprsed by the progrs that we have wnsed the Uned Stat the 15 years sce that publitn: public opn about homosexualy has shifted signifintly over the past few s, wh more Amerins than ever before sayg that “sexual relatns between two adults of the same sex” is “not at all wrong” (Figure 1); sodomy laws have been led unnstutnal the Uned Stat; a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which exclud sexual mori om ary service, has been repealed; and, perhaps most strikgly, same-sex upl are now regnized as equal to different-sex upl marriage. It remas to be seen if general prejudice and stigma related to sexual and genr mory stat cl ncert wh chang attus toward specific issu, like marriage, or whether homophobia and transphobia get transformed to more palatable anti-LGBT attus such as is evint by the move toward supportg “relig eedoms.