Pentagon lists homosexuality as mental disorder

Posted by Melissa McEwan at 7:08 AM on June 20, 2006.

Pam Spaulding points to this article at SFGate.com, which would be alarming if it weren't so frustratingly par for the course with the nutwit homophobes tasked with running the country these days.

A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.

The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.

The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, and has condemned the Pentagon document, known as "a Defense Department Instruction." Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said "the policy document is under review," perhaps because nine members of Congress have sent a letter to Rumsfeld pointing out that "other Pentagon regulations dealing with mental health do not include homosexuality on any lists of psychological disorders."

What about narcissistic personality disorder? Is that of any concern to the Pentagon?

(Pam's House Blend, Eschaton)

--> Sign up for Peek in your inbox... every morning! (Go here and check Peek box).

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.