[Dialogue] US Military Deems Homosexuality a 'Mental Disorder'

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, June 21, 2006 by Agence France Presse
<http://www.afp.com> 

US Military Deems Homosexuality a 'Mental Disorder' 

by Jerome Bernard

 

US lawmakers have called on the US Defense Department to withdraw a document
which states that homosexuality is a "mental disorder."

Researchers recently found the Pentagon's directive 1332.38, on "physical
disability evaluation," which includes homosexuality in a list of "mental
disorders," along with mental retardation and personality disorders.

The November 1996 document was re-certified as "current" in 2003, according
to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the
University of California, Santa Barbara.

"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,"
Representative Marty Meehan of Massachusetts said Tuesday.

"There is no scientific basis for such a classification, which leads me to
believe that the classification is motivated by something more sinister," he
added.

Meehan and eight other members of Congress sent a letter to Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday calling for changes.

They said "any inadvertent outdated language" should be updated so that
military regulations are consistent "and in keeping with the American
Psychiatric Association's stance reaffirming that 'homosexuality per se
implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability or general social
and vocational capabilities.'"

Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP the
document is "currently under review."

The lawmakers also called for a general review of the US military's policies
and medical regulations. They estimated that there are about 65,000
homosexual and bisexual members of the US armed forces.

Since 1993, he said the US military has had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy
under which gays and lesbians are tolerated as long as they do not make
their sexual orientation public. Openly homosexual soldiers are forced to
leave the service.

According to a Congress watchdog report released last year, the US Army has
spent 200 million dollars in 10 years to replace the estimated 10,000
homosexual soldiers forced to leave the military.

Copyright C 2006 Agence France Presse

###

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20060626/3b03bc5f/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 6731 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : /pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20060626/3b03bc5f/attachment-0001.gif