This article was recently discussed on Affirmation's e-mail list Q-Saints. Interesting dialogue followed including a post on Evergreen, the church's current controversial "reparative therapy" program to turn gays into straights.

By Jeff Smith
August 15, 1997

CHICAGO (AP) Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and doesn't need treatment, the nation's largest group of psychologists has declared in an attempt to quell controversy over so-called reparative therapy.

The American Psychological Association, by a vote of its major policy-setting board Thursday, also called on mental health professionals to "take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientation."

The association first declared in 1975 that homosexuality isn't a mental disorder, saying it supported the American Psychiatric Association in removing it from the official list of mental and emotional disorders.

The newest resolution said lack of information, ignorance and prejudice puts some "gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning individuals at risk" for seeking "conversion" or "reparative" therapy, which is aimed at reducing or eliminating homosexuality.

There have been no well-designed scientific studies to test such therapy, the association said in a statement.

But it hasn't been conclusively shown to be harmful, "extensive clinical experience suggests that such therapy feeds upon society's anti-gay prejudices and is likely to exacerbate the client's issues of poor self-esteem," the association's office said.

Kim Mills, a representative of the Human Rights Campaign, a lesbian and gay political group, said the resolution "reaffirms the fact that since there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, there is no reason that gay, lesbian or bisexual people should try to change."

Robert H. Knight, director of cultural studies for the conservative Family Research Council, said "homosexual behavior entails inevitable physical and psychological risks" and maintained that homosexuals have been successfully treated for decades.

"Homosexuals can change," he said.

Editorial comment: Interesting. By this standard, anti-gay religious fundamentalism should also be classed as a treatable disease. After all, it has a long and well-documented history of not only entailing physical and psychological risks, but of directly causing physical and psychological torture and death. Sadly, there is no comparable program to treat that mental illness. Maybe the APA could put it on their agenda for next year.