Pentagon memo: Homosexuality a disorder

Document outlines discharge policies; department says it's under review

Updated: 3:58 a.m. CT June 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental
health experts abandoned that position.
The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities,
and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.
Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon’s failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has
created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay
harassment.


Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.


The Pentagon has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives
of service members but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.


Critics slam document

The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara,
uncovered the document and pointed to it as further proof that the military deserves failing grades for its
treatment of gays.


Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the center, said, “The policy reflects the department’s continued misunderstanding of homosexuality and makes it more difficult for gays and lesbians to access mental health
services.”


The document, called a Defense Department Instruction, was condemned by medical professionals, members
of Congress and other experts, including the American Psychiatric Association.


“It is disappointing that certain Department of Defense instructions include homosexuality as a ’mental disorder’
more than 30 years after the mental health community recognized that such a classification was a mistake,”
said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.


Congress members noted that other Pentagon regulations dealing with mental health do not include
homosexuality on any lists of psychological disorders. And in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
on Monday, nine lawmakers asked for a full review of all documents and policies to ensure they reflect that same standard.


“Based on scientific and medical evidence the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 — a
position shared by all other major health and mental health organizations based on their own review of the science,” James H. Scully Jr., head of the psychiatric association, said in a letter to the Defense Department’s top doctor
earlier this month.


There were 726 military members discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy during the budget year
that ended last Sept. 30. That marked the first year since 2001 that the total had increased. The number
of discharges had declined each year since it peaked at 1,227 in 2001, and had fallen to 653 in 2004.

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Ugh. It's times like these that I'm so proud to be an American.

yeah. i'm not a pessimist normally but i can see us getting worse every day.

__________________
then she dances skirt swaying in the half-light she dances white blossom in the black sky
'I need new clothes', she thinks, 'new skin, a mind I can bear to live in'.

thank god im english!

omg when new elections?

2008.

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then she dances skirt swaying in the half-light she dances white blossom in the black sky
'I need new clothes', she thinks, 'new skin, a mind I can bear to live in'.

oh that's not good at all
it's about time someone cleaned up his mess

there's a long road ahead. sadly.

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then she dances skirt swaying in the half-light she dances white blossom in the black sky
'I need new clothes', she thinks, 'new skin, a mind I can bear to live in'.

how much did the war cost the us tax payer up to now?

i was off.
http://www.iraqometer.com/

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then she dances skirt swaying in the half-light she dances white blossom in the black sky
'I need new clothes', she thinks, 'new skin, a mind I can bear to live in'.

WHAT? you mean 250 billion dollar?????

see edit

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then she dances skirt swaying in the half-light she dances white blossom in the black sky
'I need new clothes', she thinks, 'new skin, a mind I can bear to live in'.

i'm speechless

This. Is. Crap. This is a load of f**cking b******s! If people think we have an illness, then they're not going to tkae the gay rights movement seriously, they're just going to keep treating us like bloody deviants. This is DISGUSTING.

They changed it 33 years ago, that's right there in the opening article. Not really all that recent.

__________________
We are sorry, the mind you have reached is not a working mind.
Please hang up and die again.
Please hang up,
And die again.

Im curious, for all those people who say it isnt a mental disorder, technically in scientific terms, what would YOU classify it? Not that such people need to be classified and segragated further. Its typical that anyone outside the "norm" would would be classified as having a disorder. "Disorder" is a completely inappropriate term, especially if it doesnt infringe on a person's ability to work.

that *IT'S* a DISORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another expession of love and lust, basically.

sexuality is a disorder
humans arent NATURALLY meant to procreate