‘The greatest gay victory’: the American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness
By AJ Birt, MA History
On December 15th 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) changed a ruling they had held for almost a century. Their board of trustees voted and declared that homosexuality was no longer classified as a mental illness. Instead, homosexuality was seen as a ‘sexual orientation disturbance’. It was still viewed as a ‘disease’, and anyone ‘struggling’ with this affliction could receive treatment. While it is clear that homosexuality was still not unequivocally accepted, these changes were revolutionary.
Previously, the APA saw homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance. Homosexuals were banned from working for the federal government, and many lost their jobs in the so-called ‘Lavender Scare’. Despite the publication of Alfred Kinsey’s ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male’ in 1948, which detailed that many adult males had enjoyed the possibility of same-sex acts, the homosexual was still regarded as a security risk. The ‘otherness’ of homosexuals and homosexual behaviour was a threat to the stability of post-war, militant America.
Eisenhower’s 1950 declaration that banned homosexuals from serving the federal government.
The APA’s 1973 declaration, then, changed the tune of medical discrimination. The National Gay Task Force, writing in 1973, declared that the previous classification of homosexuality was ‘the cornerstone of oppression’ for queer individuals. The APA’s reclassification was ‘the greatest gay victory’ - and they were right to call it a ‘victory’. The National Gay Task Force were instrumental in petitioning the APA to change its definition of homosexuality.
Three people at the National Gay Task Force display at the 1973 APA Convention.
The impact of this decision on public opinion would be massive, furthered even more with the APA’s call to end discrimination based on sexuality. Those working for the APA were not to discriminate against homosexuals when it came to matters of housing, employment, and licensing. The official stance of this monolithic organisation was that homosexuals deserved the same protections offered to others.
However, at this time same-sex acts were still illegal in 42 American states. The first state to legalise same-sex behaviour in private was Illinois in 1962, but universal legalisation would not occur until 2003, following the case of Lawrence v. Texas. While the American Law Institute voted to decriminalise consensual sodomy in 1955, the path to equality was by no means uniform across the country. The boundary between public and private was purposefully vague, allowing for increased prosecution of consensual same-sex acts. Thus despite the progressive nature of the APA’s ruling, the social and cultural acceptance of homosexuality remained almost Victorian.
In hindsight, the impact of the APA’s legislation is clear. Whilst it endured a polarised acceptance at the time, the significance of homosexuality being freed from the oppressive label of ‘mental illness’ allowed homosexuals to live with marginally less fear. Supposed treatments for homosexuality, such as conversion or aversion therapy, were increasingly forgotten due to the APA changing the classification of homosexuality. This reclassification was a first, monumental legislative step towards queer liberation in the United States.
Edited by William Budd