In early 1973 several petitions for the removal of homosexuality from the DSM were presented to the nomenclature committee.
the APA's Nomenclature Committee met in February of 1973. Among those present at the meeting, Dr. Seymour Halleck stressed that there was no scientific evidence supporting the theory that homosexuality was a developmental disorder. Numerous scientists presented research on homosexuality presenting evidence that homosexuality was not a disorder but rather a normal variation of human sexuality.
Charles Silverstein presented the work of many scientists showing that the DSM classification was not consistent with a scientific perspective. Indicating that homosexuality does not even meet the base definition of a mental disorder.
Silverstein stated "I suppose what we're saying is that you must choose between the undocumented theories that have unjustly harmed a great number of people and continue to harm them and ... controlled scientific studies. It is no sin to have made an error in the past, but surely you will mock the principles of scientific research upon which the diagnostic system is based if you turn your backs on the only objective evidence we have." (Ref Bayer)
The APA's Nomenclature Committee went through an 11-month process by preparing a report recommending the change in DSM-II. This process was open to any APA member and in the course of the 11 months 78 different experts were called on to present evidence and research. The committee specifically invited most vocal opponents of the change, Charles Socarides, Irving Bieber, and Robert McDevitt, to present research and evidence. While all three attended meetings they presented no research. Instead they chose to complain how the this was a political move not a scientific one.
At the end of this process the APA's Council on Research and Development unanimously recommended deletion of homosexuality from DSM-II. Next, it was taken to the Assembly of District Branches, where it was again approved. The next step was the APA Reference Committee, composed of the heads of the various APA councils and the president-elect. The Reference Committee endorsed the proposal, leaving the approval of the board of trustees at the December meeting as the final step. (Ref Bayer)
Then the APA Board of Trustees again invited , Charles Socarides, Irving Bieber, and Robert McDevitt, to present their case a third time on December 10, 1973. Bieber restated the old theories without presenting data to support them. Socarides and McDevitt complained that the change in classification was motivated by politics, not by scientific studies. Socarides and McDevitt were asked once again to present scientific studies supporting their view of homosexuality as a pathology. They could not produce any. Following those presentations, the Board of Trustees met in executive session and voted to approve the removal of homosexuality from DSM
Socarides and Bieber poured over the associations by-laws and found a provision designed to provide some democratic control over the association's corporate life, and then forced a petition demanding a referendum of the Association's membership. Amazingly, those who accused the APA of capitulating to political pressure were now themselves forcing a political maneuver and using a loophole in a provision for non-scientific matters to accomplish their end. It didn't work.
This happened almost 50 years ago and since then there has been no evidence and no research to show homosexuality is or ever was a mental illness.
