The Myth that Gay People are Sick People

National Public Radio has in its archives a long 2001 rebroadcast on how the American Psychiatric Association came to remove homosexuality from its list of illnesses. This vote on December 15, 1975, made homosexuality no longer an illness.

Gay haters here have always cited a newspaper article which reported there were gay activists protesting at the 1975 national convention. In response to the protests, the article said, the Association removed homosexuality from the category of an illness. The article went on to quote an official of the Association who said the doctors caved to political pressure.

Books have been written about what actually happened--the Association actually abandoned the notion homosexuality as an illness because of evidence from a controlled study and from getting to know gay people.

The original designation of gay as an illness was from a study done by a credentialed psychiatrist. He studied gay people and determined there was a "science-based" cause of same sex attraction. It was the result of an "over bearing mother and weak father". The psychiatrist remained proud of his research because he felt he had freed gay people from the clutches of religion. Religion thought same sex attraction was caused by Satan and was the worst of sins.

There was one huge error in his study, however. He studied only gay people already under psychiatric care. These were gay people with mental illnesses in hospitals or under doctors' care.

Another psychiatrist found a large sample of gay men who had no history of mental illness and had never had need to visit a psychiatrist. She then found an equally large sample of straight men with no history of mental illness. Psychiatric interviews and work ups of all men in both groups was done. The results of all work ups were made blind, no identity as to which of the men was straight or homosexual. The work ups were given to a panel of separate psychiatrists to read and label the men gay or straight. The panel members were unable to correctly identify the gay or straight participants. This study blew a huge hole in the view homosexuality was a mental illness.

In the early 1970's this research and new people elected to governing positions within the APA began to change the organization's stance on homosexuality. By 1975 the change was ready to be implemented.

Evidence is the APA would have changed its view of homosexuality in 1975 even if protesters had not shown up. The newspaper article claiming it was a political decision keeps the mental illness myth alive.