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Gays have 'mental disorder'
20/06/2006 19:05 - (SA)
Washington - A defence department document discovered by University of California researchers identifies homosexuality as a "mental disorder" - a classification which has raised the ire of lawmakers, who are urging the Pentagon to withdraw it.
Directive 1332.38, on "physical disability evaluation", includes homosexuality in a list of "mental disorders", along with mental retardation and personality disorders.
The November 1996 document was recertified as "current" in 2003, according to the centre for the study of sexual minorities in the military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"It is disappointing that certain department of defence instructions include homosexuality as a 'mental disorder' more than 30 years after the mental health community recognised that such a classification was a mistake," Representative Marty Meehan of Massachusetts said on Tuesday. Sinister
"There is no scientific basis for such a classification, which leads me to believe that the classification is motivated by something more sinister," he added.
Meehan, along with eight other members of congress, sent a letter to defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressing the hope that "any inadvertent outdated language can be updated so that military regulations are consistent across the board and in keeping with the American psychiatric association's stance reaffirming that 'homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability or general social and vocational capabilities".
Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Martin, a Pentagon spokesperson, told AFP the document is "currently under review."
- AFP
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