Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Revision 1.1)

Thanks for all the help in putting this together.

1 posted on 11/21/2003 9:50:24 AM PST by scripter

To: *Homosexual Agenda; EdReform; scripter; GrandMoM; backhoe; Yehuda; Clint N. Suhks; saradippity; ...

2 posted on 11/21/2003 9:50:46 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Excellent work, Scrip! Thank you!

( Lunchtime bump...)

3 posted on 11/21/2003 9:56:21 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)

To: Bryan; lentulusgracchus; ArGee; Kevin Curry; Coleus; MeeknMing

4 posted on 11/21/2003 9:58:45 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)

It's a major pain to get the document to display correctly on FR. It looks fine until I post it here... Still, that's a very, very small price to pay.

5 posted on 11/21/2003 9:59:10 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

To: Libertarianize the GOP

6 posted on 11/21/2003 10:01:09 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

The new database includes the year the article was written. This information was obtained from a best effort in reading each article where some did not have dates. In those instances, the year the article was put in the database was used.

7 posted on 11/21/2003 10:20:02 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Wow, Scripter. That is just a fantastic list. You have done a great job. I wish I had half the time it would take to wade through all of it, although I know it will come up bit by bit over the course of the next few years.

Shalom.

8 posted on 11/21/2003 10:27:15 AM PST by ArGee (Scientific reasoning makes it easier to support gross immorality.)

To: EdReform; scripter; *Homosexual Agenda

Some of these may be duplicating your list ...
barf alert!

MICHAEL STUPARYK/TORONTO STAR

Michael Stark, left, and Michael Lashner pop champagne
and kiss after their wedding ceremony yesterday.
Leshner called the ruling, "Day One for millions of gays
and lesbians around the world."

Gay couple married after ruling
(Toronto, Canada)
B.C. court OK's gay marriage -
first gay couple legally married in British Columbia
Gays Flock to Divorce Court
Same-sex unions in 'News' -
Dallas Morning News to publish FREE
same sex unions announcements
The Media's Gay Mafia "Queers" the News
Useful Idiot Caption-A-Rama: Special Gay Pride Edition!
Gay frat seeks approval from UT-San Antonio
(See #39 for some humor)

9 posted on 11/21/2003 10:39:07 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (http://richard.meek.home.comcast.net/SorosClintoon.JPG)

There is definitely a lot of information here. Definitely a lot to read. I may post quarterly updates now that I have the database in an easier to maintain format and a script to read the new format. So future updates will be a cinch as long as I keep up with the amount of postings.

Also, now that we have articles dating back a few years, I may just post updates for the past two years only... otherwise this list is going to get very long.

One thing I didn't know... folks all over the world read, discuss and link to this database listing. Well, at least the old listing. It'll probably take a while for everyone to realize the new database listing exists, and I hope they do - this listing has a lot more information.

10 posted on 11/21/2003 10:56:37 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

One category that might be helpful is legislation. I've come back to one of my favorite themes, that Christians aren't the ones trying to legislate their morality - gays are - here and it would be nice to be able to reference all the places gays are trying to make it illegal not to support their agenda.

On the other hand, you might have to double your hard drive to do that.

Shalom.

11 posted on 11/21/2003 11:25:56 AM PST by ArGee (Scientific reasoning makes it easier to support gross immorality.)

I've been putting similar information in the politics section of the database, but creating another category is very simple.

Most of the named links work in the database. What I mean is, folks can reference one section as I did with the above politics link. The named links that don't work are the names with spaces between them, such as child abuse I'll make sure that works in the next revision.

12 posted on 11/21/2003 11:32:15 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Thanks for your efforts compiling & posting this- it is a valuable reference.

13 posted on 11/21/2003 2:18:36 PM PST by backhoe (Just an old Keybored Cowboy, riding the TrackBall into the Sunset...)

14 posted on 11/21/2003 2:45:11 PM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)

15 posted on 11/21/2003 2:49:19 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)

Great job scrip! This may be the most comprehensive database around. The topic and year subdivisions make it even more valuable.

Thanks!!!

16 posted on 11/21/2003 4:47:14 PM PST by upchuck (Encourage HAMAS to pre-test their explosive devices. A dud always spoils everything.)

To: Libertarianize the GOP

The database wouldn't exist if it weren't for all your pings to articles of interest. Thanks.

17 posted on 11/21/2003 5:18:57 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

The topic and year subdivisions make it even more valuable.

I was hoping folks would find it helpful. I've seen one site list by category and another by year and month. I think sorting by month is too much for our purposes and hope folks can use this format to get pro-active in this culture war.

18 posted on 11/21/2003 5:26:12 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

I really appreciate your extensive help in this war.

19 posted on 11/21/2003 5:31:08 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

it is a valuable reference.

Tell your friends and tell your family about it. We need to get more folks reading the truth behind this war.

20 posted on 11/21/2003 5:32:29 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

To: Libertarianize the GOP

21 posted on 11/21/2003 8:37:15 PM PST by longtermmemmory

To: longtermmemmory

I kept meaning to ping you to this thread but something kept coming up. I'm glad you found it.

22 posted on 11/21/2003 9:41:25 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Tell your friends and tell your family about it. We need to get more folks reading the truth behind this war.

I do, as often as polite conversation allows.

I am a middle-aged, normal man who is left with a feeling that "I have warmed a viper in my bosom"-- most of my life, I've tried to encourage people to be tolerant of the homosexual contingent among us.

I've had gay friends, relatives, employees... and never had a great problem with them, at least not with those who were courteous, reasonably discrete, and were not involved with children.

But this new tack by the more militant memebers- gay marriage, gay adoption, and gay everything on TV has left me dismayed- I mean, honest to God, why should 1.6 to maybe 5 percent of the population dictate to everyone else what they are supposed to celebrate?

23 posted on 11/21/2003 11:58:22 PM PST by backhoe

Another thanks, and kudos.

24 posted on 11/22/2003 12:41:10 AM PST by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them, or they like us?)

Thanks Scripter. May God richly bless you for the work you've done (and continue to do) here.

(on a different note how goes the job search. We've been praying for you and need an update)

25 posted on 11/22/2003 5:31:07 AM PST by John O (God Save America (Please))

Sex is a powerful motivator. By defenition, For homosexuals its all about sex.

26 posted on 11/22/2003 5:41:45 AM PST by longtermmemmory

27 posted on 11/22/2003 8:04:19 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Great work!

The homosexual lifestyle is a much larger killer than SUV's,Global warming, assault rifles, guns and terrorisism combined!

A quick examnination of a few tables at the Center for Disease Control can verify this.

I have yet to see a picture of Diane Feinstein holding up a sick gay man on the floor of the US Senate to illustrate the dangers! Ala the famous picture of her holding up an assault rifle to illustrate gun dangers.

I am also surprised that the right does continually release this info with some serious debate on the “it ain’t hurting no one / privacy of the bedroom” position gays take.

The huge costs of medical care for homosexuals draws monies away from the little children and education, welfare, Medicare I could go on and on…

28 posted on 11/22/2003 11:11:32 AM PST by Kay Soze (Liberal Homosexuals kill more people than Global Warming, SUVs’, Firearms & Terrorism combined.)

Pls add me to your ping list on the topic.

Its time wwe start fighting back.

Thank you!

29 posted on 11/22/2003 11:19:26 AM PST by Kay Soze (Liberal Homosexuals kill more people than Global Warming, SUVs’, Firearms & Terrorism combined.)

Thanks! Will be back later (perhaps a few days or so) to post additional information in this thread.

You have FReepmail...

( Link back to first thread: Homosexual Agenda Index of Links )

30 posted on 11/24/2003 9:00:07 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)

31 posted on 11/25/2003 6:21:01 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)

“We finally realize that recruitment is the only answer...lesbian goals must be to recruit more lesbians.”

Homosexual activist Kathy McDevitt, in an appearance before the Davis City, California City Council in 1980. Davis Enterprise, October 2, 1980.

32 posted on 11/28/2003 9:53:48 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

“[I am] tired of the old chestnut that our movement for public acceptance has not increased and will not increase the number of gay men and lesbians in existence. ‘There are more of us than there used to be.’”

Donna Minkowitz, “Recruit, Recruit, Recruit,” Advocate, December 29, 1992.

33 posted on 11/28/2003 9:54:53 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

One thing I didn't know... folks all over the world read, discuss and link to this database listing. >>

Another Great Thread, thanks for all of your hard work. How did you find out about the world reading this database?

34 posted on 12/05/2003 2:08:01 PM PST by Coleus (Only half the patients who go into an abortion clinic come out alive.)

How did you find out about the world reading this database?

When compiling the database I often search for original and duplicate articles to have as backups, just in case. In this search I find references and pointers to FreeRepublic, the index threads, EdReform and scripter. One person called me the custodian of the database which made me smile. A google search on homosexual agenda categorical index will turn up some hits as well.

35 posted on 12/05/2003 2:57:39 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Please add me to your ping list

LiteKeeper
Chaplain, US Army, retired

36 posted on 12/05/2003 9:28:30 PM PST by LiteKeeper

Done. Thanks for joining. Please ping me to articles of interest so I can ping the group.

37 posted on 12/05/2003 11:00:26 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

To: scripter; EdReform; little jeremiah; John O; ArGee; Bryan

I thought you might find this informative.

The following is the conclusion of: The Gay Gene? by Jeffrey Satinover, M.D.

Here, then is a final summary, in the form of a dialogue.

Isn't homosexuality heritable?

Yes, significantly.

So it is inherited?

No, it is not.

I'm confused. Isn't there is a "genetic component" to homosexuality?

Yes, but "component" is just a loose way of indicating genetic associations and linkages. This will not make sense unless you understand what, and how little, "linkage" and "association" really means.

What about all the evidence that shows that homosexuality "is genetic"?

There is not any, and none of the research itself claims there is; only the press and, sadly, certain researchers do--when speaking in sound bites to the public.

But isn't homosexuality "biologically in the brain"?

Of course it is. So is just about everything else. I'll
bet people who pray regularly have certain enlarged portions of their brains!

So doesn't that mean that homosexuality is "innate"?

No more than prayer is. The brain changes with use or nonuse as much as muscles do--a good deal more, in fact. We just do not usually see it happening.

But doesn't homosexuality run in families?

Yes.

So you get it from your parents, right?

You get viruses from your parents, too, and some bad habits. Not everything that is familial is innate or genetic.

But it just seems to make sense. From the people I know there's a type--it's got to be inherited--that runs in families and a lot of these people are gay, right?

That is what associated traits are--but what exactly is the associated trait--or traits--you are detecting? If there is one thing the research confirms, it is that it is not "gayness" itself. That is why these traits are sometimes in evidence at a very early age, long before sexuality is shaped.

So what are these traits?

An important question, indeed. Science is being seriously obstructed in its effort to answer that question. If we were allowed--encouraged--to answer it, we would soon develop better ideas on what homosexuality is and how to change, or better, prevent it. We would know who was at greater risk for becoming homosexual and what environments--family or societal--foster it. As one prominent gay activist researcher implied, all genetic things being equal, it is a whole lot easier to become "gay" in New York than in Utah. So who do you think would benefit most from that kind of research?

Well, what traits do you guess are "associated," as you put it, with homosexuality?

May I speculate, perhaps wildly? That is how scientific hypotheses are first generated. The important thing is not to avoid ideas that prove wrong, just not to cling to them if they do.

Okay, go ahead, speculate.

Intelligence, anxiety, sensitivity, aesthetic abilities, taste. You know, all the stereotypes.

But where do these traits come from? Aren't they inherited?

We do not know yet. Some may be. Or rather, we do not know how much is inherited, and which elements are direct and which merely further associated and linked with other yet more fundamental traits. But you are getting the picture. That is how the research ought to proceed. It
is not necessarily that the traits that facilitate homosexuality are themselves bad; perhaps many are gifts. Athleticism is a generally good thing, and we think highly of people who satisfy their athletic impulses as, say, outstanding BBPs. Not so the fellow who merely becomes a thug.

38 posted on 12/09/2003 11:22:11 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

39 posted on 12/09/2003 11:41:04 PM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1

"Like most psychiatrists," says Dr. Spitzer, "I thought that homosexual behavior could be resisted--but that no one could really change their sexual orientation. I now believe that's untrue--some people can and do change."

Source

40 posted on 01/11/2004 5:46:05 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Levay quote regarding his own research:

"[His 1991 research] made the unassuming LeVay one of the most misunderstood men in America. "It's important to stress what I didn't find," he points out with the courtly patience of someone who long ago got used to waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. "I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men are 'born that way,' the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain--INAH3 is less likely to be the sole gay nucleus of the brain than part of a chain of nuclei engaged in men and women's sexual behavior. My work is just a hint in that direction--a spur, I hope, to future work."

Source: Interview with David Nimmons (March, 1994) "Sex and the Brain", Discover, Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 64-71.

41 posted on 02/06/2004 9:18:24 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

42 posted on 02/13/2004 7:50:34 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)

43 posted on 02/13/2004 9:26:18 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)

In 1973 the APA (American Psychiatric Association) declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. According to LeVay, it wasn't science that propelled the APAs change, he said

"Gay activism was clearly the force that propelled the APA to declassify homosexuality."

Source: Simon LeVay, Queer Science, MIT Press, 1996, p. 224

44 posted on 02/14/2004 12:35:05 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

Dr. Robert L. Spitzer played a pivotal role in the 1973 decision by the APA to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. Spitzer used to believe homosexuals couldn't change but after studying the results of therapy he now believes homosexuals can change:

"I thought that homosexual behavior could be resisted--but that no one could really change their sexual orientation. I now believe that's untrue--some people can and do change." Spitzer completely changed his mind whether or not some homosexuals can change. And then Spitzer concluded with:

"the mental health professionals should stop moving in the direction of banning therapy that has, as a goal, a change in sexual orientation. Many patients, provided with informed consent about the possibility that they will be disappointed if the therapy does not succeed, can make a rational choice to work toward developing their heterosexual potential and minimizing their unwanted homosexual attractions."

Source: Spitzer made the above comments at an annual APA meeting, May 9, 2001. The study was reported in the May 9, 2001 issues of The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and it was also released to many local newspapers via the AP. ABC, CBS, FOX and MSNBC all reported the study.

45 posted on 02/14/2004 12:37:49 AM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

In addition LeVay's acknowledgement that Gay activism was clearly the force that propelled the APA to declassify homosexuality, here are a few links that document the homosexual community's infiltration into the APA, in order to remove homosexuality from the DSM. It was part of a well planned campaign:

An excerpt from: The A.P.A. Normalization of Homosexuality, and the Research Study of Irving Bieber

"Dr. Bieber was one of the key participants in the historical debate which culminated in the 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from the psychiatric manual.
His paper describes psychiatry's attempt to adopt a new "adaptational" perspective of normality. During this time, the profession was beginning to sever itself from established clinical theory--particularly psychoanalytic theories of unconscious motivation--claiming that if we do not readily see "distress, disability and disadvantage" in a particular psychological condition, then the condition is not disordered.
On first consideration, such a theory sounds plausible. However we see its startling consequences when we apply it to a condition such as pedophilia. Is the happy and otherwise well-functioning pedophile "normal"? As Dr. Bieber argues in this article, psychopathology can be ego-syntonic and not cause distress; and social effectiveness-‹that is, the ability to maintain positive social relations and perform work effectively--"may coexist with psychopathology, in some cases even of a psychotic order."...
Dr. Bieber describes the deletion of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic and statistical manual as "the climax of a sociopolitical struggle involving what were deemed to be the rights of homosexuals."
Gay activist groups believed that prejudice against homosexuals could be extinguished only if, as homosexuals, they were accepted as normal. "They claimed that homosexuality is a preference, an orientation, a propensity; that it is neither a defect, a disturbance, a sickness, nor a malfunction of any sort." To promote this aim, Dr. Bieber reports, "Gay activists impugned the motives and ridiculed the work of those psychiatrists who asserted that homosexuality is other than normal."
A task force was set up to study homosexuality, but the members chosen included not a single psychiatrist who held the view that homosexuality was not a normal adaptation. There followed riots at scientific meetings by gay activists who increased the pressure on the Psychiatric Association.
Will preventive therapy for homosexuality be prohibited, Dr. Bieber wondered, when homosexuality is normalized?
Furthermore is it the proper domain of psychiatry to remove diagnoses to eliminate prejudice?
Dr. Bieber pointed out that there were several other conditions in the DSM-II that did not fulfill the "distress and social disability" criteria: voyeurism, fetishism, sexual sadism, and masochism. A.P.A.'s Dr. Spitzer replied that these conditions should perhaps also be removed from the DSM-II -- and that if the sadists and fetishists were to organize as did the gay activists, they, too, might find their conditions normalized.

Summary
The factors that determined the decision of the APA to delete homosexuality from DSM-II were summarized as follows:

Gay activists had a profound influence on psychiatric thinking.
A sincere belief was held by liberal-minded and compassionate psychiatrists that listing homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder supported and reinforced prejudice against homosexuals. Removal of the term from the diagnostic manual was viewed as a humane, progressive act.
There was an acceptance of new criteria to define psychiatric conditions. Only those disorders that caused a patient to suffer or that resulted in adjustment problems were thought to be appropriate for inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual."

An excerpt from: Psychology's sexual dis-orientation, by MIT Psychologist Gerald E. Zuriff, Ph.D:

"DIAGNOSING HOMOSEXUALITY
In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association formalized its system of diagnosis and published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Today, a DSM listing has practical consequences; whether treatment for a problem is paid for by health insurance companies or a psychological problem qualifies as a disability under various laws often depends on whether it is listed in DSM.
Not surprisingly, given the psychoanalytic theory shared by most clinicians, the DSM listed homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder. Interestingly, it was classified as a sociopathic personality disturbance, meaning that the diagnosis could be made purely on the basis of the homosexuality alone, despite the absence of subjectively experienced distress. In the 1968 revision of the DSM, homosexuality was still included as a disorder but classified more descriptively under "sexual deviations" along with disorders such as fetishism and pedophilia. What followed is unprecedented in the annals of medicine.
The publication of DSMII coincided with the founding of a militant gay liberation movement whose goals included the normalization of homosexuality as a legitimate "lifestyle." Gay activists mounted a furious attack on the American Psychiatric Association for designating homosexuality a disease. Their most effective form of protest consisted of demonstrations at several professional conventions, most critically the 1970 disruptions in San Francisco. Over the next three years, the association was forced to reconsider not only the inclusion of homosexuality in DSMII but also the entire conceptual basis for defining a mental disorder.
The gay liberation movement considered the psychiatric designation of homosexuality a major basis for antihomosexual attitudes in American society. It justified a wide variety of antihomosexual legislation, ranging from laws barring homosexuals from immigrating to the United States or serving in the military to regulations in New York requiring homosexual taxicab drivers to undergo semiannual psychiatric examinations. In a broader sense, the designation reinforced the prevalent attitude that homosexuality is an "illness." According to the activists, this stigmatization not only justified bigotry but also caused gay men and lesbians to turn against themselves in self-hatred. The DSMII diagnosis was seen as a societal attempt to control human sexuality under the guise of a medical diagnosis.
After intense lobbying and debate, in December 1973, the Board of Trustees passed the proposal to remove homosexuality from DSMII. Because of the sharp disagreements within psychiatry, however, the board, as a compromise, replaced homosexuality with "sexual orientation disturbance" for "individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward people of the same sex and who are either disturbed by, in conflict with, or wish to change their sexual orientation." This compromise allowed homosexuality to be dropped as a disorder, giving the gay lobby what it wanted, and, at the same time, it allowed psychiatrists to treat homosexuality under the new diagnosis.
The board's decision unleashed a storm of counterprotest from many psychiatrists. Opponents saw the board's decision as a capitulation to gay activism rather than a reasoned judgment based on medical evidence. They forced the leadership to submit its decision to a referendum of the organization's membership. After an intense campaign, of the approximately ten thousand votes cast, the proposal passed with 58 percent. In retrospect, it seems shocking that the question of whether a condition is a psychiatric disorder should be decided by a vote, but a closer look at the debate indicates that a vote is not as strange as it seems...
THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Thus, the decision whether homosexuality is a psychopathology is really a social-cultural question rather than a scientific one, and settling the matter by debate and a vote is not as bizarre as it initially appears. Scientific studies may inform the discussion, but the final decision must be a societal value judgment. Accordingly, the continuing controversy in the mental health profession over this issue merely reflects the cultural divergences in our wider society over homosexuality, and politics within the profession have been critical in every stage of this debate.
With the decision voted upon, homosexuality was dropped in the seventh printing of DSMII, and "sexual orientation disturbance" was substituted. In DSMIII, further refinements were introduced. First, "sexual orientation disturbance" was replaced with "ego-dystonic homosexuality" as a term to diagnose clients persistently distressed by their homosexuality and wishing to have heterosexual relationships. This change clarified that only homosexuals were intended and emphasized the impairment in heterosexual functioning. Second, the stated causes of this disorder consisted of the negative attitudes of society toward homosexuality and/or desire for heterosexual life of family and children. Thus, contrary to psychoanalytic theory, the causes were presented as entirely social rather than internal conflicts or family dynamics.
Eventually, even this revised compromise was opposed. Critics charged that the new terminology singled out only homosexuality as an orientation that might lead to distress. Second, it suggested that homosexuality itself can still be considered a disorder rather than a normal variant of human sexuality. Third, it failed to recognize that in the United States, almost all people who are homosexual normally pass through a phase in which their homosexuality is ego-dystonic. Consequently, yet another compromise was devised. In DSMII-Revised, even ego-dystonic homosexuality was omitted. Clients with a "persistent and marked distress about sexual orientation" would now be diagnosed with "sexual disorder not otherwise specified." The term homosexuality no longer appeared..."

Panelists Recount Events Leading to Deleting Homosexuality As a Psychiatric Disorder From DSM

Twenty-five years ago APA leaders, in the glare of a national media spotlight, took the controversial step of deleting homosexuality from the Association's compendium of psychiatric disorders. That action launched APA on a quarter century of efforts to end discrimination against homosexuals and coincided with the increasing willingness of gay and lesbian psychiatrists to insist openly that APA must listen to them.
A panel of psychiatrists who played crucial roles in the fight to end the stigma attached to homosexuality both within and outside the mental health field came together at the APA annual meeting last month to provide insiders' perspectives on that initiative and more recent efforts to alter how psychiatry views gays and lesbians and their sexual orientation.
Melvin Sabshin, M.D., a member of the APA Board of Trustees in the early 1970s and chair of the Scientific Program Committee at that time, described how the alienation gay psychiatrists felt from their APA colleagues led in 1970 to the start of a concerted push for APA to include them in decision making and address their concerns and those of gay patients.
If there was an official kickoff for APA's newly energized gay psychiatrists, it was the 1970 annual meeting in San Francisco, Sabshin suggested, where Gay Liberation Front activists along with political protesters in support of other social and political causes disrupted the meeting. "It was guerilla theater" at that meeting and the one held in Washington, D.C., the next year, he said.
The onset in 1970 of a decline in psycho-analysis's dominance of the field also contributed to the change of mood in psychiatry about pathologizing homosexuality, he noted.
In 1972, for the first time, the annual meeting featured exhibits and discussions spotlighting positive aspects of the lives of gay individuals. Also during that year well-known psychiatrists such as Richard Green, M.D., Judd Marmor, M.D., and John Spiegel, M.D., began openly challenging psychiatrists' attitudes toward and treatment of homosexual patients, Sabshin observed. Marmor, a psychoanalyst who would soon be elected APA president, played a particularly significant role in trying to bridge the chasm that existed between his psychoanalytic colleagues and psychiatrists who were convinced that homosexuality was not an illness.
While many APA members welcomed the new openness and opportunities to reassess their thinking, the stubborn polarization and factionalism that dogged this issue did not suddenly retreat into a quiet corner.
Sabshin credited the chair of APA's Committee on Nomenclature in the early 1970s, Robert Spitzer, M.D., with playing a pivotal role in propelling the evolution of APA's position on homosexuality. That committee was charged with revising the initial version of DSM, and Spitzer-armed with research showing there were no valid data to link homosexuality and mental illness-advocated forcefully for the strategy of deleting homosexuality from the disorders list and replacing it with a new one called "sexual orientation disturbance."
In a key vote in December 1973, the Board of Trustees overwhelmingly endorsed Spitzer's recommendation. Opponents of the decision attempted to overturn it with a referendum of the APA membership in early 1974-just as Sabshin was beginning his 23-year tenure as APA medical director. The Board's decision to delete homosexuality from the diagnostic manual was supported by 58 percent of the membership.
At the same time the debates over sexual orientation and psychopathology were occurring, a small group of gay psychiatrists was holding informal meetings to explore forming an organization that would heighten their visibility and that of gay patients. This event, unthinkable two or three years earlier, explained Robert Cabaj, M.D., to the overflow audience, culminated in 1978 in the establishment of the organization that eventually became the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists (AGLP), which now has more than 600 members.
Also in 1973 APA passed a position paper calling on psychiatrists to advocate for full civil rights for gays and lesbians and to work to end the discrimination they endure, noted Cabaj, who is medical director of the San Mateo County Mental Health System and coauthor of a textbook on homosexuality and mental health. He hailed that paper as "the cornerstone of everything that has happened since" in APA's relationship to homosexuality.

Gay Psychiatrists More Visible

Through the rest of that decade, while issues affecting gay and lesbian psychiatrists and patients continued to achieve greater visibility in clinical and scientific forums, the voices of openly gay and lesbian psychiatrists were still rarely heard in APA policy discussions. That changed in 1982 when the APA Assembly granted a formal vote to gay and lesbian psychiatrists as a minority/underrepresented group, a status similar to that already achieved by other minority groups.
In the mid 1980s APA formed a task force on homosexuality issues, and by that time, Cabaj emphasized, it was able to focus not on the psychopathology battle but on homophobia, discrimination, and stereotyping. The task force was eventually elevated to a permanent component, the Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues. One of its earliest chairs was San Francisco psychiatrist James Krajeski, M.D., who this month became editor of Psychiatric News.
One of that committee's earliest endeavors was to remedy once again a defect that gay psychiatrists and many others perceived in the way in which the latest version of the DSM labeled some homosexuals. With the introduction of DSM-III in 1980 the diagnosis of sexual orientation disturbance had been changed to ego-dystonic homosexuality, which applied to people persistently distressed by their sexual orientation and desperate to change it. With another revision under way in 1986, committee members focused their efforts on successfully convincing the DSM task force to remove any such designation that linked sexual orientation with psychopathology.

Next 25 Years

The next several years will likely be a time of "consolidation of gains as psychiatrists who are more comfortable and open about homosexuality come up through the ranks," predicted Howard Rubin, M.D. A "gay-affirmative psychiatry" that has emerged over the last few years will become more commonplace "as long as we don't become complacent," he said.
While gay psychiatrists "now have a place at the table," APA and psychiatry in general will still have to address several troubling issues related to homosexuality, said Rubin, a research fellow at UCLA and member of the APA Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues. Prominent on this list is the large number of psychiatry residency programs where nothing is taught about homosexuality or where the program is "gay for a day," that is, where a few hours are devoted to this topic often via a guest speaker. In addition, psychiatrists will be called upon to take a leadership role in discussions of the relative influence of biological factors on the development of sexual orientation, he said.
With psychiatry having depathologized homosexuality, he said, the field's next task is to acknowledge that there are real mental health consequences of being gay, but to address them as individual responses to homophobia and social prejudice.
Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., who recently became dean of Georgetown University's medical school and is a former senior deputy medical director of APA, has long been an advocate and ally on the many of the issues discussed by the other panelists.
"Let's hope," she emphasized, "that we have learned valuable lessons about the harm that comes from imposing a blanket of psychopathology over any group."
Robinowitz added, "While the DSM action was but one of many changes in the past 25 years, and while many people still view homosexuality in value-laden and not always rational ways, the decision had a major impact on other health professionals and the general public. I wish it had more.
"We still have a long way to go," she said, until gays and lesbians gain full acceptance.-K.H.

46 posted on 02/14/2004 5:56:49 PM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)

47 posted on 02/14/2004 6:02:30 PM PST by ladylib

To: ladylib; little jeremiah; scripter

Thanks! Bookmarked and pinged little jeremiah

48 posted on 02/15/2004 11:39:43 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)

Do you want me to ping the list to this thread, in case they haven't seen the updated Index of links lately? Or were you pinging me to the other article?

I will do your bidding.

49 posted on 02/15/2004 1:39:42 PM PST by little jeremiah (everyone is entitled to their opinion, but everyone isn't entitled to be right.)

More info on NAWGLA: Lesbian Pedophilia.

50 posted on 02/15/2004 7:34:23 PM PST by scripter (Thousands have left the homosexual lifestyle)

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Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links

Category

Year

Title

Posted On
FreeRepublic

Summary

Gay Psychiatrists More Visible

Next 25 Years

Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links

Category

Year

Title

Posted On FreeRepublic

Summary

Gay Psychiatrists More Visible

Next 25 Years

Posted On
FreeRepublic