APPENDIX TO CAR CAUSE COMMUNIQUE [1]

Appendix to COMMUNIQUE [1] BY CARIBBEAN CAUSE

on the Domestic Partnership Bill in the Cayman Islands

July 24, 2020
1. Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality – Jack Drescher https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695779/

“While protests and panels took place, APA engaged in an internal deliberative process of considering the question of whether homosexuality should remain a psychiatric diagnosis. This included a symposium at the 1973 APA annual meeting in which participants favoring and opposing removal debated the question, ‘Should Homosexuality be in the APA Nomenclature?’.

The Nomenclature Committee, APA’s scientific body addressing this issue also wrestled with the question of what constitutes a mental disorder. Robert Spitzer, who chaired a subcommittee looking into the issue, “reviewed the characteristics of the various mental disorders and concluded that, with the exception of homosexuality and perhaps some of the other ‘sexual deviations’, they all regularly caused subjective distress or were associated with generalized impairment in social effectiveness of functioning” (p. 211).

Having arrived at this novel definition of mental disorder, the Nomenclature Committee agreed that homosexuality per se was not one. Several other APA committees and deliberative bodies then reviewed and accepted their work and recommendations. As a result, in December 1973, APA’s Board of Trustees (BOT) voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM.

Psychiatrists from the psychoanalytic community, however, objected to the decision. They petitioned APA to hold a referendum asking the entire membership to vote either in support of or against the BOT decision. The decision to remove was upheld by a 58% majority of 10,000 voting members.

Behav Sci (Basel). 2015 Dec; 5(4): 565–575.
Published online 2015 Dec 4. doi: 10.3390/bs5040565

2. When Gay Was Not Okay with the APA: A Historical Overview of Homosexuality and its Status as Mental Disorder - Sarah Baughey-Gill Western Washington University, sarah.baughey-gill@wwu.edu https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=orwwu

“At the 1973 APA convention, the diagnosis of homosexuality was once again debated. However, at this convention, the Nomenclature Committee of the APA would be the ones to break the deadlock, by setting out to decide what exactly constituted a mental disorder. They determined that mental disorders should be defined as having “regularly caused subjective distress or were associated with generalized impairment in social effectiveness of functioning” (Drescher, 2009). Thus, they concluded that homosexuality was not a mental disorder according to their definition of the term, as it did not by itself cause homosexuals distress and had not been shown to impair social functioning. So, on December 15,1973, the APA’s Board of Trustees officially removed homosexuality from the DSM.

Although many members of the APA supported the decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM, there were also those who felt it was a hasty political decision that was not founded on research. Even Barbara Gittings, a proponent of the decision and member of the 1972 panel, noted that “it was never a medical decision... that’s why I think the action came so fast” (Marcus, 2002, p. 179) However, she felt that the inclusion of homosexuality in the DSM in the first place was also a political decision, and lacked evidence based on sound research. “

3. The Evelyn Hooker Study and the Normalisation of Homosexuality - Thomas Landess, http://www.angelfire.com/vt/dbaet/evelynhookerstudy.htm

“The remainder of [ Dr. Hooker’s ] study is a highly selective summary of comments by judges, all of which support her thesis that the two groups are, in effect, indistinguishable in terms of "overall adjustment." In her own evaluation of the results, Hooker -- aware of the degree to which she is challenging leading authorities in the field -- offers a set of "admissions" about the limitations of her study. In this section she concedes the possibility that homosexuals are indeed pathological, a point overlooked by most of her admirers.

• She speculates that the psychological defect of homosexuals may lie "in a weakness of ego-function and control and that this cannot be adequately diagnosed from projective test protocols. As one psychiatrist puts it, the material produced in the Rorschach is like that produced on the analytic couch. Two men may produce very similar material on the couch, but the difference between them is that one -- the normal -- gets up at the end of the hour and resumes his normal functioning, while the other does not."

• She also admits that the pathology of homosexuality may only occur "in an erotic situation and that the homosexual can function well in non-erotic situations such as the Rorschach, TAT, and MAPS. Thus, one could defend the hypothesis that homosexuality is symptomatic of pathology, but that the pathology is confined to one sector of behavior, namely, the sexual." (She seems to have disproved this proposition by her own study, since the homosexuals were unable to control their sexual fantasies, even in a "non-erotic situation" such as taking the MAPS and TAT).

• During Hooker's research, she took the life histories of her subjects; and though she didn't include an analysis of these materials in her study, she did indicate that when she eventually published her results, "the life history data from the two groups will differ: namely, in the love relationships. Comparisons between the number and duration of love relationships, cruising patterns, and degree of satisfaction with sexual pattern and the love partner will certainly show clear-cut differences."

Hooker never published the summary of these histories, though in a fairly recent interview with writer-researcher Edward Eichel, she said she still hoped to do so after 35 years. However, she undoubtedly found in these personal histories what most other researchers have found: a substantially greater number of sexual partners among homosexuals than heterosexuals and a significantly shorter duration in relationships. These findings, if published, could well have cast further doubts on the stability and normalcy of homosexuals.

It is significant to note that Hooker's stated reservations seldom, if ever, find their way into the summaries of her work -- summaries that are now de rigeur in legal and scholarly discussions of homosexuality. Her 1957 report has, like a folk tale, become simpler and purer in the constant retelling. Instead of a complicated account filled with the predictable complexity of life, we now have only Beauty and the Beast.”

4. Massive Study Finds No Single Genetic Cause of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior
Analysis of half a million people suggests genetics may have a limited contribution to sexual orientation - Sara Reardon, August 29, 2019
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-study-finds-no-single-genetic-cause-of-same-sex-sexual-behavior/

“The researchers found five single points in the genome that seemed to be common among people who had had at least one same-sex experience. Two of these genetic markers sit close to genes linked to sex hormones and to smell—both factors that may play a role in sexual attraction. But taken together, these five markers explained less than 1 percent of the differences in sexual activity among people in the study. When the researchers looked at the overall genetic similarity of individuals who had had a same-sex experience, genetics seemed to account for between 8 and 25 percent of the behavior. The rest was presumably a result of environmental or other biological influences. The findings were published Thursday in Science.

Despite the associations, the authors say that the genetic similarities still cannot show whether a given individual is gay. “It’s the end of the ’gay gene,’” says Eric Vilain, a geneticist at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study.”

5. Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK Position Statement PS02/2014 April 2014
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/PS02_2014.pdf

“It is not the case that sexual orientation is immutable or might not vary to some extent in a person’s life. Nevertheless, sexual orientation for most people seems to be set around a point that is largely heterosexual or homosexual. Bisexual people may have a degree of choice in terms of sexual expression in which they can focus on their heterosexual or homosexual side.”

6. Doctor sacked for refusing to refer to transgender woman as ‘she’
Dr David Mackereth, a Christian, tells tribunal he will not ‘call any six-feet tall bearded man “madam” Ewan Somerville @ewansomerville Wednesday 10 July 2019

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/christian-doctor-trans-woman-sacked-gender-pronouns-universal-credit-a8999176.html

A Christian doctor was sacked after saying he could not refer to "any 6ft tall bearded man as madam", an employment tribunal has heard.

Dr David Mackereth told a panel that using transgender pronouns was "a ritual denial of an obvious truth". The 56-year-old from Dudley, claims the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discriminated against his religion by suspending him after he said he would not use gender pronouns for what he called someone's "chosen" sex.

7. Gay adoption row magistrate appeals against dismissal, 14 May 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-48273360

A former magistrate who rejected an application from a same-sex couple to adopt a child has appealed against a decision to remove him from the bench.

Richard Page, of Headcorn, Kent, claimed he had been discriminated against at a London tribunal because of his Christian beliefs.

He was sacked from the bench in 2016 after airing his views on television. Paul Diamond, representing Mr Page, said: "A judge cannot be removed because of political pressures."

Mr Diamond, from the Christian legal centre, told the employment tribunal appeal the case was "of constitutional importance", adding Mr Page had been victimised because he had expressed his Christian beliefs.

"Saying a child needs a mother and a father is not derogatory or deriding of people. It's simply a statement," he said.

8. Brave 10 year- old girl and boy suspended after asking to be excused from LGBT classes.
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2019/july/brave-10-year-old-girl-and-boy-suspended-after-asking-to-be-excused-from-lgbt-class-lesson

A 10-year-old girl in Britain is bravely speaking out on video after being suspended from class, accused of making homophobic comments during an LGBT class lesson. Not only is she denying that claim, she says she didn't even know what that word meant.

Kaysey and a classmate named Farrell, studying at a school in South London, both asked to be excluded from a school lesson that promoted LGBT pride month.

The teacher, Susan Papas, told the two students that the lesson was part of the curriculum and refusing to participate was not an option, according to the Christian Legal Centre which fights for religious freedom in the UK. But the two children courageously stood up for their beliefs, despite their young age.