When the APA reclassified homosexuality from sin to mental disorder to a lifestyle
In 1973, after several years of bitter dispute, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality from its official list of mental diseases . Infuriated by the Board's action, a substantial number of dissident psychiatrists charged the association's leadership with capitulating to the pressures of Gay Liberation groups , and forced the board to submit its decision to a referendum of the full APA membership. To those who viewed the 1973 decision sympathetically, psychiatry had displayed a remarkable capacity to acknowledge the significance of new research findings and to rethink its approach to sexuality. Psychiatry did not capitulate to the pressure of Gay Liberation, but rather revealed an admirable flexibility. Unlike those who were unyieldingly committed to anti-homosexual values rooted in the Judeo-Christian past, the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association had demonstrated wisdom, insight, and the stren