1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:08,600 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: show that proves it's never too late to make history. 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier and today we're looking at a watershed 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: moment in the gay rights movement. The day when the 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: largest psychiatric organization in the world issued a second opinion 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: on what it means to be gay. As a warning, 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: today's episode includes discussion of sexuality and aversion therapy, which 9 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: may not be appropriate for younger listeners. The day was 10 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: December fifteenth, nineteen seventy three. The American Psychiatric Association reversed 11 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: its stance on homosexuality, declaring that it is not a 12 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: mental illness. Same sex attraction had been largely ignored by 13 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: Western medicine until the twentieth century, and when it was 14 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,119 Speaker 1: finally discussed, it was generally treated as a mental disorder 15 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: or disease. These classifications were rooted in the widely held 16 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: belief that sexual orientations besides heterosexuality were abnormal and therefore 17 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: something that needed to be cured or fixed. This societal 18 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: view owed more to religious doctrine than to science, but 19 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: it was written into medical textbooks and reference manuals just 20 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: the same. In the case of the American Psychiatric Association, 21 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 1: or the APA, it was written into the first edition 22 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: of the group's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 23 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: published in nineteen fifty two. That manual, known as the 24 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: DSM I, was created to define and organize the list 25 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: of known psychiatric diagnoses and to give mental health professionals 26 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: recommendations on how to treat them. The first DSM labeled 27 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: homosexuality as a quote sociopathic personality disorder and prescribed a 28 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,080 Speaker 1: variety of potential treatments, nearly all of which would be 29 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:18,239 Speaker 1: deemed inhumane today. Throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties, many 30 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: psychiatrists prescribed methods such as chemical castration, brain surgery, and 31 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: electric shock therapy in a misguided attempt to cure male homosexuality. 32 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: The most common form of this aversion therapy, involved showing 33 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 1: patients pictures of nude men accompanied by a jolt of electricity. 34 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: The doctors thought that by linking same sex attraction with pain, 35 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: they could rid the patient of his homosexual desire. Then, 36 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: at the end of each session, the patient would be 37 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,480 Speaker 1: shown a picture of an attractive woman without an electric 38 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: shock in an attempt to retrain his libido. In addition 39 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: to these degrading and ineffectual methods, many doctors also served 40 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: as medical experts in legal trials, branding gay people as 41 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: sexual deviants and promoting the idea that they were unfit 42 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: to care for children or to work in sensitive fields 43 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: such as security or intelligence. These hostile opinions, backed by 44 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:21,440 Speaker 1: the APA's classification of homosexuality, were used to justify discrimination 45 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: in the workplace and to diminish gay people's standing in society. 46 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: When the DSM II was published in nineteen sixty eight, 47 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: it still listed homosexuality as a mental disorder, but it 48 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: was now categorized as a sexual deviation rather than as 49 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: a sociopathic personality disorder. That softening of language can likely 50 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: be attributed to two factors. The first was research conducted 51 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: by doctors and advocates who disputed the idea that gay 52 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: people were sick, and the second was the emerging gay 53 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: rights movement of the late nineteen sixties. The Stone Wall 54 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: uprising in New York City marked a major milestone for 55 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: gay rights activists. It showed the police and the government 56 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: that attempts to criminalize their love lives and shut them 57 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: out of public places. Wouldn't go unchallenged, and following the 58 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: success of that demonstration, gay activists turned their attention to 59 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: the APA, another form of authority that contributed to their persecution. 60 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 1: Between nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy two, there were a 61 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: number of tense confrontations between activists and psychiatrists at the 62 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: annual meetings of the APA. Demonstrators such as graduate student 63 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: Charles Silverstein, would interrupt the lectures held at those events 64 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: and tell the audiences the ugly truth about aversion therapy, 65 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: something which they believed amounted to torture. The public scrutiny 66 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: that resulted from these encounters led the APA to invite 67 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,800 Speaker 1: Silverstein and his peers to submit a report to the 68 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: organization's Nomenclature Committee, the group in charge of updating the DSM. 69 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: When they presented their finding, Silverstein took the committee to 70 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:06,040 Speaker 1: task for the suffering that psychiatry had inflicted on gay people. 71 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: What we hope to convey to you, he said, is 72 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: that we have paid the price for your past mistake. 73 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:17,279 Speaker 1: Don't make it again. The following year, the Board of 74 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:22,240 Speaker 1: the APA recommended the removal of homosexuality from the DSM. 75 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:24,480 Speaker 1: The matter was put to a vote at the nineteen 76 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: seventy three convention, and fifty eight percent of the ten 77 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: thousand psychiatrists and attendants voted in support of the removal, 78 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: thirty seven percent voted to retain its listing as a 79 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: mental disorder, and the remaining five percent abstained from voting. 80 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: The resulting resolution, issued on December fifteenth of that year, 81 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 1: said quote, we will no longer insist on a label 82 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: of sickness for individuals who insists that they are well 83 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: and demonstrate no generalized impairment in social effectiveness. The statement 84 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: went on to say that the APA sos quote civil 85 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 1: rights legislation at local, state, and federal levels that would 86 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: ensure homosexual citizens the same protections now guaranteed to others. 87 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: The APA also supports and urges the repeal of all 88 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: legislation making criminal offenses of sexual acts performed by consenting 89 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:23,280 Speaker 1: adults in private. That said, it's worth noting that the 90 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: APA didn't fully remove homosexuality from the DSM. Instead, as 91 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,880 Speaker 1: a concession to opponents, the wording was changed to sexual 92 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: orientation disturbance. In other words, being gay in itself was 93 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: no longer considered a mental disorder, but if a person 94 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: was uncomfortable or in conflict with their homosexuality, they were 95 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: deemed mentally ill. This distinction led to continued controversy, and 96 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: it took two more changes until homosexuality was removed from 97 00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: the DSM altogether. Today, the American Psychological Association states that 98 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: quote psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals agree that 99 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: homosexuality is not an illness, a mental disorder, or an 100 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: emotional problem. Homosexuality was once thought to be a mental 101 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 1: illness because mental health professionals and society had biased information. 102 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: The APA's de classification of homosexuality was a vital step 103 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 1: in removing the cruel societal stigma surrounding gay identity, and 104 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: while that work is far from over, Reflecting on victories 105 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: of the past instills hope for more to come in 106 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 1: the future. I'm Gay Bluesier and hopefully you now know 107 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 108 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us 109 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and 110 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always 111 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this day at 112 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:06,360 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot Com. Thanks to Chandler May for producing the show, 113 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 114 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: again soon for another day in history class.