The Complex Story of Homosexuality in Psychiatry

The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a diagnostic code in 1973, but the process was more complicated than commonly believed. In the midst of the APA conference, over a thousand psychiatrists gathered to discuss whether homosexuality should be included in the APA Nomenclature. The conference was marked by tensions between activists and psychiatrists. Psychiatrist John Fryer, disguised as Dr. Anonymous, talked about the discrimination he faced as a gay psychiatrist. This discussion led to a stalemate, but one encounter at a gay tiki bar changed Robert Spitzer's perspective. He realized that homosexuality did not cause significant distress or impair functioning, leading to his later work to remove it from the DSM.