The Fight to Remove “Homosexuality’s” Label As a “Mental Disorder”

I put the word “homosexuality” in quotes because I don’t like it. I dislike everything there is about the word because it makes gay people sound as though they are defined by their sexuality. And that’s not so. We have very distinct cultures, both gay men and women, and sexuality is not the only thing that defines us. 

With that said, it’s a little ironic that they use the word so freely when discussing the label, “mental disorder.” For many years that’s how we were defined…as having a mental disorder. And now there’s a documentary out that discusses how activists fought for years to have that stigma of mental disorder removed. 

The activists’ purpose was clear: They planned to confront the more than 10,000 psychiatrists present about the APA’s designation of homosexuality as a mental illness. 

Here’s the rest. It sounds interesting and I’ll watch it. But I think it also shows how far we still have to go. It’s always been small steps for us.   

The Wizard of Pride

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