Of course homosexuality is an illness. It is mentally ill, spiritually ill, and often times is associated with physical illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1973. They did so not because the science changed, but because of public consensus and academic pressure. Likewise, the American Psychoanalytic Association, or the APsaA (not to be confused with the American Psychiatric Association, above), banned homosexuals from serving as psychoanalysts until 1991, and only changed their position after being faced with an anti-discrimination lawsuit. Today, the American Psychoanalytic Association is apologizing.
At the 109th anniversary meeting of the APsaA in San Diego, organization president, Dr. Lee Jaffe, apologized to a crowd of more than 200 people for their past “bigotries” and received a standing ovation.
“It’s hard to admit that one has been so wrong,” Jaffe said according to Reuters.
Although the psychoanalyst group stood firm on homosexuality from the delisting of homosexuality from mental illnesses in 1973 to their anti-discrimination suit in 1991, the APsaA went on to become an early supporter of Same-Sex Marriage and has also spent much of its time and energy trying to discredit gay conversion therapy.
Although much of the organization’s energy has been spent over the last 25 years as an advocate for homosexuals, it’s apparently never too late for yet another (redundant) apology to the gay “community.”
