The History of Homosexuality and the DSM
Why the psychological community needs to step up as LGBT+ allies
The diagnosis of homosexuality was taken out of the DSM in 1973 in response to the action shown by queer activists. Activists during this time were trying to show that homosexuality being in the DSM added to the anti-homosexual social stigma. In 1990, the Worlds Health Organization removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. Sadly, conversations about homosexuality since medical and psychiatric acceptance have allowed for debates from religious and governmental perspectives.
People generally accept LGBT+ people in our modern society, even with the conversation around LGBT+ rights becoming more political. This acceptance also allowed people in the medical and psychiatric field to change the questions they were asking from “what causes homosexuality? And “how do we treat it?” to how to support the mental and physical health of the LGBT+ community.
In the first edition of the DSM, homosexuality was considered unnatural, with heterosexuality being the norm. The 1960s, with several civil rights movements happening around the country, especially in New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, encouraged queer activists to stand up to the APA and fight for homosexuality to be taken out of the DSM…