LGBT protests against the American Psychiatric Association

Between 1970 and 1974, there were several protests organized by the LGBT community against the policies of the American Psychiatric Association and their stance that homosexuality was a mental disorder.

LGBT protests against the APA
John Fryer speaking as “Dr. Henry Anonymous” at the 1972 APA conference
Date1970-1974
LocationUnited States
TypeDemonstration
ThemeLGBT rights
ParticipantsGay Liberation Front

Central figures

On the side of the American Psychiatric Association, the leading figures included Irving Bieber, a psychoanalyst whose book Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals (1962) argued that gay men’s sexuality was the product of "destructive family relationships and other deleterious interpersonal influences."[1] Bieber was a central target of the Gay Liberation Front's protests.[2] The leader of negotiations between the activists and the APA was Robert L. Spitzer.[3]

Amongst the gay rights advocates, there were two main wings of activists. The moderate side included Franklin Kameny of the Mattachine Society, and Barbara Gittings and Tobin Lahusen of the Daughters of Bilitis. These figures had long been aligned with the homophile movement and rejected the militant activism of the radical activists, represented by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), which had formed after the Stonewall riots.[4] A central figure of GLF organizing in the DSM campaign was Gary Alinder.[2] In the final years of the campaign, Kameny and Gittings were joined by Ronald Gold of the moderate New York Gay Activists Alliance, which had split from the GLF.[4]

Protests

1970 APA Conference

Activists from the Gay Liberation Front protested the 1970 APA conference in San Francisco, where they shut down the panel discussion on homosexuality by accusing the attending psychiatrists of sadism, barbarism, and torture.[4] According to Gary Alinder, protesters announced to the conference attendees: "We've listened to you long enough; you listen to us. We're fed up with being told we're sick. You're the ones who are sick. We're gay and we're proud."[2] Irving Bieber, a central target of the protesters, was met at the conference by "derisive laughter" by the GLF.[5] Outside the convention hall, protestors formed a human chain.[6] Conference attendees, however, dismissed the gay protesters as "schizophrenic," with one psychiatrist in attendance telling the Washington Post, that one feminist protester was a "paranoid fool and a stupid bitch."[4]

1971-1973

Following the actions at the 1970 conference, declassification advocates leveraged their national publicity to meet and negotiate with APA authorities. At the 1971, 1972, and 1973 APA conventions, gays also appeared as official conference participants.[4]

APA Conferences

At the 1971 APA meeting, Barbara Gittings and Frank Kammeny hosted a panel discussion titled "Lifestyles of Non-patient Homosexuals."[4] Kameny demanded psychiatrists provide proof that homosexuality was a mental illness, an offer which no psychoanalyst took up.[7] Meanwhile, gay activists circulated brochures describing the "proud and healthy" constitutions of homosexuals.[4] The 1972 APA conference was the first to feature a panel with a gay-identified APA psychiatrist Dr. John Fryer. He wore a Richard Nixon mask and used a microphone with a voice distorter, speaking as “Dr. Henry Anonymous” to argue in favor of the declassification campaign.[8] Fryer compared being a closeted therapist to what he called "Nigger Syndrome," saying that straight-passing gay professionals deserved sympathy since they were similar to "the black man with light skin who chooses to live as a white man."[4][9] At the 1973 APA conference in Honolulu, Ronald Gold, a gay activist, gave a famous speech in which he told APA members, “Stop it, you’re making me sick.”[8]

Declassification

These protests, which had together become known as the "declassification movement," culminated in 1973 when the APA Board of Trustees voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM.[8] Speaking to The New York Times after the vote, Robert L. Spitzer said that "mental disorders" were defined as mental distress which impair social functioning, and that, "Clearly homosexuality per se does not meet these requirements: Many homosexuals are satisfied with their sexual orientation and demonstrate no generalized impairment."[10]

Aftermath

At the 1974 APA conference in Detroit, the panel on homosexual featured Gittings and Kameny as speakers. Several dozen lesbians and gay men "allies" infiltrated the audience and threatened to shut down the session unless an unless an all-lesbian panel replaced the planned one.[4] The moderator agreed to give up two panel seats to the protestors, but the protesters seized the stage anyway. Joan Nixon, a reporter for the lesbian magazine Lavender Woman, wrote, "About fifteen angry dykes leaped onstage. The moderator was shocked and declared the workshop over… A man from the audience ran up looking like he was about to sock the dyke… Several women in the audience screamed at the two most vocal dykes calling them crazy."[4] This was the last major gay protest against the APA in the 1970s.

See also

References
  1. Bieber, Irving M.D., Toby, Bieber Ph.D (1979). "Male Homosexuality". The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 24 (5): 409–421. doi:10.1177/070674377902400507. PMID 487335. S2CID 42888514.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Alinder, Gary (July 1970). "Gay Liberation meets the Shrinks". Come Out!. 1 (4).
  3. Spiegel, Alix (January 3, 2005). "The Dictionary of Disorder". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 16, 2010.
  4. Lewis, Abram J. (January 2016). ""We Are Certain of Our Own Insanity": Antipsychiatry and the Gay Liberation Movement, 1968–1980". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 25 (1): 83–113. doi:10.7560/JHS25104. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  5. Decker, Hannah S. (13 June 2013). The Making of DSM-III: A Diagnostic Manual's Conquest of American Psychiatry (1 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 9780195382235. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  6. Ring, Trudy. "Storming the Stage: A History of Disruptions to Advance Our Rights". Advocate. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  7. Julianne, McShane. "New film chronicles fight to remove homosexuality's 'mental disorder' label". NBC News. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  8. Levy Uyeda, Ray. "How LGBTQ+ Activists Got "Homosexuality" out of the DSM". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  9. Rocca, Mo. "The Gay Activists Who Fought the American Psychiatric Establishment". Literary Hub. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  10. "The A.P.A. Ruling on Homosexuality". The New York Times. 23 December 1973. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
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