In the Milestones section of the May 16th issue of Time Magazine, it noted that gay rights activist Jack Nichols had died of leukemia. Prior to reading this tidbit of information, I did not know of Jack Nichols, and I was surprised to learn that apparently, prior to 1973, the American Psychiatric Association considered homosexuality to be a mental illness. Mr. Nichols had been integral in the campaign to get the APA to remove homosexuality from the lists of mental illnesses.
I was shocked that as recently as 1973, homosexuality was considered in such a way. Not shocked in the way that "oh my god, I can't believe such a thing ever happened", but simply that homosexuality garnered a classification of any kind. I mean, is heterosexuality on the books as "mental normalcy?" Anyway, I brought this up to my husband, who is specializing in psychiatry. His response was "yes, well, homosexuality isn't considered a mental illness, but it *is* still considered a deviancy".
To me, deviancy is golden showers or autoerotic asphyxiation, not homosexuality. Ok, sure, yes, man+woman = baby. Even so, same-sex partners fall in love just as intensely as their hetero counterparts. Someone might argue that homosexuals tend to have more frequent partners, more one night stands. Somehow I highly doubt that, if you take into account the heterosexual people I've known. I just find it hard to believe that love between consenting adults, regardless of gender, is deviant.
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