Pentagon a little behind the times

Photo from BBC News

The BBC reports that the Pentagon document still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, despite the official American Psychological Association classification that explicitly state that homosexuality is not associated with mental illness:

Psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals agree that homosexuality is not an illness, mental disorder or an emotional problem. Over 35 years of objective, well-designed scientific research has shown that homosexuality, in and itself,is not associated with mental disorders or emotional or social problems. Homosexuality was once thought to be a mental illness because mental health professionals and society had biased information. In the past the studies of gay, lesbian and bihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif
Add Imagesexual people involved only those in therapy, thus biasing the resulting conclusions. When researchers examined data about these people who were not in therapy, the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness was quickly found to be untrue.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association confirmed the importance of the new, better designed research and removed homosexuality from the official manual that lists mental and emotional disorders. Two years later, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution supporting the removal. For more than 25 years, both associations have urged all mental health professionals to help dispel the stigma of mental illness that some people still associate with homosexual orientation.

23 years after the American Psychological Association realized their error in classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, the Pentagon has not. Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) has started moving to force the Pentagon to change the document. It's well overdue.