The question of whether homosexuality should be considered a mental disorder is a question about classification. The debated scientific question was, Is homosexuality a mental disorder? The operationalized research question that pervaded the debate was, Do homosexuals have high prevalences of mental disorders? But the research did not accurately operationalize the scientific question. A retrospective analysis would suggest that the attempt to find a scientific answer in that debate rested on flawed logic. However, a fresh look at the issues should make it clear that whether LGB populations have higher prevalences of mental disorders is unrelated to the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. This heritage has tainted discussion on mental health of lesbians and gay men by associating-even equating-claims that LGB people have higher prevalences of mental disorders than heterosexual people with the historical antigay stance and the stigmatization of LGB persons ( Bailey, 1999).
Inside job gay rule 34 manual#
Although the debate on classification ended in 1973 with the removal of homosexuality from the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM American Psychiatric Association, 1973), its heritage has lasted. That debate posited a gay-affirmative perspective, which sought to declassify homosexuality, against a conservative perspective, which sought to retain the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder ( Bayer, 1981). The study of mental health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations has been complicated by the debate on the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder during the 1960s and early 1970s.