Doctor Lists Homosexuality as Woman's 'Current Disease'

Activists in Spain are outraged after a 19-year-old woman was given a diagnosis of "homosexuality" from a gynecologist, who listed it as a disease.

The woman, whose name was not released, went to a doctor in Murcia, a city in southeastern Spain, Monday for treatment of a menstrual problem, reports The Guardian, which cites Spanish publication El Diario. He asked if he could list her sexual orientation on his report, and she said yes and that she was gay; she thought at the time that the information might be relevant to her condition. But the report ended up saying "Current disease: homosexuality."

"At first I thought it was funny, but it just isn't," the woman said. She and her mother planned to file a complaint with the Murcian Health Service, and they want an apology.

The regional LGBTQ+ rights organization Galactyco has denounced the doctor's action and demanded an apology as well. "The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in 1990, and yet, 31 years on, there are still some professionals in Murcia's health service who view sexual orientation as an illness," said a statement from the group.

Galactyco has received "countless" other reports of discrimination against patients, the statement noted. "We find it alarming, unacceptable and intolerable that there are professionals today who are responsible for our health, but who ignore the realities of LGBTI people," the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Murcian Health Service told El Diario the incident was being investigated "to properly establish the facts," but the service did plan to apologize to the woman.