The Pentagon no
longer deems homosexuality a mental disorder, officials
said on Wednesday, although the reversal has no impact on
U.S. policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving
in the military. After a 1996 Pentagon document
placing homosexuality among a list of "certain mental
disorders" came to light this month, the American
Psychiatric Association and a handful of lawmakers
asked the Defense Department to change its view.
The Pentagon said
in a statement, "Homosexuality should not have been
characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a
procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued
over the next few days.
"Notwithstanding
its inclusion, we find no practical impact, since that
appendix simply listed factors that do not constitute a
physical disability, and homosexuality of course does
not," the Pentagon added.
The 1996 Pentagon
document, which had been recertified as "current"
three years ago, had listed homosexuality as a mental
disorder alongside mental retardation, impulse control
disorders, and personality disorders. The American
Psychiatric Association, responsible for a definitive
listing of mental health classifications, declassified
homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973.
Changing the
classification "will be consistent with the scientific
consensus on homosexuality and mental health," said
Nathaniel Frank, a researcher at the Center for the
Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. The center
recently found and released the 1996 document. "I'm glad the
language has been changed," said Steve Ralls,
spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network, an advocacy group that opposes limits on gays
in the military. (Reuters)
