The U.S. military said it would revise an official medical document that classified homosexuality as a disorder alongside mental retardation, impulse control disorders and personality disorders.

  • Original story

  • Reuters:

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon no longer deems homosexuality a mental disorder, officials said on Wednesday, although the reversal has no impact on U.S. policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military.

    After a 1996 Pentagon document placing homosexuality among a list of “certain mental disorders” came to light this month, the American Psychiatric Association and a handful of lawmakers asked the Defense Department to change its view.

    The Pentagon said in a statement: “Homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued over the next few days.”

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