Congratulations, Alabama Alberta!
To their credit, when it was pointed out to the provinicial government in Alberta that homosexuality was still listed as a mental disorder, the health minister immediately recognized it as a relic of less civilized, less educated days and ordered it removed. Predictably, though, the Pro-Family Wingnuts of Alberta are not happy:
“It’s just a political decision based on avoidance of political pressure and has nothing to do with common sense, nothing to do with the well-being and welfare of homosexuals at all,” said Gwen Landolt, national vice president of REAL Women Canada.
[…]
The fact that the province’s diagnostic codes still included homosexuality shocked many, as the deviance had been removed by most jurisdictions and the major health bodies many years before – the American Psychiatric Association in 1973, the Canadian Psychological Association in 1982, and the World Health Organization in 1990.
It looks like it was more of an oversight than anything else.
But another pretend doctor wingnut lady, from the National Association for the Lifting and Carrying of Luggage for Secret European Gay Sexytime [NARTH], is also unhappy about this!
However, Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton, president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), told LifeSiteNews that many are “dissatisfied” with unwanted same-sex attractions and seek help from therapists to “avoid homosexual behaviors and increase their heterosexual potential.”
But with the removal of homosexuality by the APA in 1973, she said, “many therapists have come to incorrectly believe that growth and change for those experiencing these feelings is not possible. This is not true.”
Damn scientific/medical organizations and their facts that don’t jibe with fundamentalist Christian bigotry!
We’ll give the last word to the first wingnut quoted above:
Landolt stated: “Common sense says that homosexuality’s not natural.”
“It is a deviation from the normal and you cannot change that. You can put it down on paper, but everyone knows instinctively that it’s not acceptable.”
Reality disagrees with your “common sense” and your deeply imprinted, bigoted instincts, Gwendolyn.
