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Answers to Some of Your Questions (continued)

A number of people have asked me what I think about the notion that homosexuality is a mental illness. To that, I will defer to the positions of national mental health organizations.

American Psychological Association (APA)
--December 1973
"The APA urges all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations."
--January 1975
"The APA deplores all public and private discrimination against homosexuals in such areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, and licensing, and declares that no burden of proof of such judgement, capacity, or reliability shall be placed on these individuals greater than that imposed on any other persons. Further, the APA supports and urges the enactment of civil rights legislation at the local, state and federal level that would offer citizens who engage in acts of homosexuality the same protections now guaranteed to others on the basis of race, creed, color, etc. Further, the APA supports and urges the repeal of all discriminatory legislation singling out homosexual acts by consenting adults in private."

American Psychological Association (APA)
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
--February 1993
"The APA and NASP shall take a leadership role in promoting societal and familial attitudes and behaviors that affirm the dignity and rights, within educational environments, of all lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths, including those with physical or mental disabilities and from all ethnic/racial backgrounds and classes.
The APA and NASP support providing a safe and secure environmental atmosphere in which all youths, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths, may obtain an education free from discrimination, harassment, violence, and abuse, and which promotes an understanding and acceptance of self."

American Psychiatric Association (APA)
--1973
The APA removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders.
--November 1973
"The APA deplores all public and private discrimination against homosexuals in such areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, and licensing, and declares that no burden of proof of such judgement, capacity, or reliability shall be placed on homosexuals greater than that imposed on any other persons. Further, the APA supports and urges the enactment of civil rights legislation at the local, state and federal level that would offer homosexual citizens the same protections now guaranteed to others on the basis of race, creed, color, etc."

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
--August 1993
"Social workers are guided by the NASW Code of Ethics which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation… NASW believes that nonjudgmental attitudes toward sexual orientation allow social workers to offer optimal support and services to lesbian and gay people. NASW affirms its commitment to work toward full social and legal acceptance of lesbian and gay people. The profession must also act to eliminate and prevent discriminatory statutes, policies, and actions that diminish the quality of life for lesbian and gay people and that force many to live their lives in the closet."

Change Therapy and Homosexuality

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
--October 1993
"The health care professional should explore each adolescent’s perception of homosexuality, and any youth struggling with sexual orientation issues should be offered appropriate referrals to providers and programs that affirm the adolescent’s intrinsic worth regardless of sexual identity. Providers who are unable to be objective because of religious or other personal convictions should refer patients to those who can.
Confusion about sexual orientation is not unusual during adolescence. Counseling may be helpful for young people who are uncertain about their sexual orientation or for those who are uncertain about how to express their sexuality and might profit from an attempt at clarification through a counseling or psychotherapeutic initiative. Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation."

American Psychiatric Association (APA)
--April 1993
"There is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of “reparative therapy” as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientation... There are few reports in the literature of efforts to use psychotherapeutic and counseling techniques to treat persons troubled by their homosexuality who desire to become heterosexual; however, results have not been conclusive, nor have they been replicated. There is no evidence that any treatment can change a homosexual person’s deep seated sexual feelings for others of the same sex.
Clinical experience suggests that any person who seeks conversion therapy may be doing so because of social bias that has resulted in internalized homophobia, and that gay men and lesbians who have accepted their sexual orientation positively are better adjusted than those who have not done so."

American Psychological Association (APA)
--August 1997
"Societal ignorance and prejudice about same gender sexual orientation put some gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning individuals at risk for presenting for “conversion” treatment due to family or social coercion and/or lack of information; children and youth experience significant pressure to conform with sexual norms, particularly from their peers; children and youth often lack adequate legal protection from coercive treatment.
Therefore...the APA affirms the following principles with regard to treatments to alter sexual orientation: that homosexuality is not a mental disorder; that psychologists do not make false or deceptive statements concerning...the scientific or clinical basis...for their services; that psychologists obtain appropriate informed consent to therapy or related procedures [that] generally implies that the [client/patient] (1) has the capacity to consent, (2) has been informed of significant information concerning the procedure, (3) has freely and without undue influence expressed consent, and (4) consent has been appropriately documented.
The APA opposes portrayals of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and adults as mentally ill due to their sexual orientation and supports the dissemination of accurate information about sexual orientation, and mental health, and appropriate interventions in order to counteract bias that is based on ignorance or unfounded beliefs about sexual orientation."

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
--February 1992
"Empirical research does not demonstrate that homosexuality is more likely than heterosexuality to be associated with psychopathology, or that sexual orientation can be changed through these so-called reparative therapies. If a client is uncomfortable about his/her sexual orientation, the sources of discomfort must be explored, but without a priori assumptions that same-sex attraction is dysfunctional.
The National Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues (NCOLGI) believes that the use of reparative or conversion therapies by social workers violates the NASW policy statement on lesbian and gay issues, particularly with regard to discrimination and oppression of lesbians and gays. NCOLGI further believes that use of these therapies violates the professional Code of Ethics... All social workers have an ethical obligation to work actively against oppression and homophobia in all of its forms, including the oppression and homophobia so explicit in the so-called reparative therapies."