Homosexuality Still Mental Disorder According to Pentagon
Thursday June 22, 2006
In 1973, the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; however the Defense Department still lists it as a defect in documents outlining retirement and discharge policies. The Pentagon list, called a Defense Department Instruction, also includes mental retardation and personality disorders.An AllAroundPhilly report quotes Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, as saying, "The policy reflects the department's continued misunderstanding of homosexuality and makes it more difficult for gays and lesbians to access mental health services." Representative Marty Meehan (D-Mass) chastised the dated Pentagon policy, "It is disappointing that certain Department of Defense instructions include homosexuality as a 'mental disorder' more than 30 years after the mental health community recognized that such a classification was a mistake." Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin told reporters the document is under review.
Will the Pentagon ever accept gays in the military? Leave your comments below.
The News: Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder
The Issue: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
The Facts: Repealing DADT Would Save $200 Million, Add 41K Troops
Get Help: Servicemembers Defense Fund
Repeal DADT: Military Readiness Enhancement Act
More News: Pentagon Spying on Gays
Image courtesy of Andrzej Pobiedzinski.
Comments
That is wrong. Unfortunately, the military is a conservative institution that will not see homosexuals equally for quite a while. It really is sad that they have that mentality. Having grown up in a military environment, it is a shame to see this in my reality.
Of course the military would be the last to change. Their business is life and death…facts and figures. In the business of life and death, feelings, petitions, and advocacy groups all come second to fact. Any logical and accountable adult (such as military leaders must be) know that homosexuality is a social disease…a choice. Only when things are truly terrible would they reject fact and logic for the “feelings” of the community.
I don’t understand why would any gay man even want to go to army. I mean, we are mostly reasonable and capable of critical thinking, at least more like some farm boys who are tricked into this. It’s a complete waste of time and money.
“homosexuality is a social disease”
The only reason why the subject of homosexuality is even seen as a “Social Disease” or a social anything is because ignorant, uneducated people of the subject make it out to be such an ecconomical, political, and social issue when in reality one’s sexual orientation has NOTHING to do with wether the person as an idiviadual has the right quailifications (guts, determination,ambition,Intelligence, spirit, etc) all things that are essentual in getting the job done. More people need to educate themselves on the matter before coming out as though they actually know what their talking about when in actuality they haven’t a clue. Being ignorant and scared of issues and/or people you know nothing about in the first place is why this country is so far behind. If people, would just stop to ask questions and educate themselves on such matters before drawing themselves the wrong conclusions perhaps this country would actually for once be able to stand up to it’s motto (without looking like fools to other countries)… ” Life, Liberty,and the persuit of happiness… and equality for all.” Americans are some of the biggest hypocrits and taht’s what makes us the laughing stock to otehr countries.