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.
Contents:
“GAY IS GOOD”: HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY THE DSM AND MORN PSYCHIATRY
The last 70 years have brought psychiatry a long way, but is only the most recent versn of the DSM that the last piec of evince of pathologizg homosexualy were removed (2). Sixty years of work by gay rights activists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and lears the mental health muny have shaped our current views about dividuals om sexual mory muni and the re that they receive.
This article exam the progrsn of classifitn of homosexualy var edns of the DSM, factors fluencg this progrsn, and implitns for sexual and other mory 1952, the Amerin Psychiatry Associatn (APA) Commtee on Nomenclature and Statistics veloped the first versn of the DSM, which served as the first manual of mental health foced on clil diagnos and re and provid a glossary and scriptn of psychiatric illns (3). Sexual viatn clud different typ of behavr classified as pathologic, cludg “homosexualy, transvtism, pedophilia, fetishism, and sexual sadism cludg rape, sexual asslt, mutilatn” (1).