Homosexuality and the American Psychiatric Association

Homosexuality in the DSM

        

        In the DSM - I, published in 1952, homosexuality was put under the category of "sociopathic personality disturbance;" the same category included pedophilia. Essentially, people who experienced sexual attraction to the same sex were not only said to be mentally ill, their "disorder" was considered, like pedophilia, to lead them to commit serious crimes, on par with sexually abusing children. Unfortunately, this means that homosexuality was, and would be for several more decades, considered a criminal offense.
        In the DSM - II, published in 1968, homosexuality was categorized as "sexual deviance," and while this may sound marginally better that the previous classification of "sociopathic personality disturbance," it was still highly stigmatized and homosexuality was still a crime, though perhaps not seen as quite as egregious.
        The DSM - II - R, 1973, removed homosexuality as a condition and replaced it with the diagnosis of "sexual orientation disturbance." Instead of homosexuality itself being seen as the issue, people's discomfort with their sexual orientation (basically, people who were gay/lesbian but uncomfortable with it) was the criteria for the diagnosis.
        The DSM - III, published in 1980, with work on it starting in 1974, included a condition called "ego-dystonic homosexuality," for which the criteria was essentially the same as for "sexual orientation disturbance" in the DSM - II - R.
        The DSM - III - R, published in 1987, still classified discomfort with one's sexual orientation under the diagnosis of "sexual disorder not otherwise specified," which still held some stigma. However, it is clearly a marked improvement from DSM - I, which classified homosexuality as a personality disturbance.
        Finally, the DSM - IV, published in 1994, contained no mention of homosexuality in its list of diagnoses. Many people would like to imagine that placing homosexuality in the category of "sexual deviance" is far in the past, but it was, in reality, barely sixty years ago.