Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago, LGBT's were completely gaga in the eyes of the medical profession. Until the late 19th century, homosexuality was a "moral weakness," then it became a "mental disorder," as doctors jumped on board the homophobia gravy train and made the life of homosexuals miserable for the next 100 years. In 1899, Chicago doctor Denslow Lewis claimed he could cure lesbianism by applying a cocaine solution to the external genitals and prescribing large doses of cannabis indica. That's not a cure, that's a lesbian dance party waiting to happen. Other Victorian doctors suggested saltwater baths and other assorted nonsense.
Sigmund Freud muddied the waters with his theory that we are all born bisexual and homosexuality is an inverted Oedipus complex where men identify with their mother and take themselves as a love object. He also thought that cigar smoking was a substitute for the addiction of masturbation. The man was an idiot. There followed decades of psychiatrists, psychologists, and snake oil salesmen spouting mumbo-jumbo about homosexuality for their own financial gain. In short, they were all guessing the causes, roots and potential cures for homosexuality, just making things up. Anybody can do that. St. Sukie's cure for male homosexuality involves scoffing chocolate eclairs, lying on a sofa in my PJs and watching old black and white movies. It's worth a try. I can feel my man-on-man sexual neurosis dripping away just thinking about it. What would you rather eat, a man or a chocolate eclair? No contest, a chocolate eclair every time. A chocolate eclair doesn't steal from your wallet or whine endlessly about its previous boyfriend. A man always does.
In 1968, Charles W. Socarides M.D., wrote: "Homosexuality is a psychological and psychiatric disorder, there is no question about it. It is a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender distinctions in society." Thankfully, Socarides died in 2005, so we don't have to listen to any more of his garbage. Some people are better off dead and Charles W. Socarides falls into that category. However, when he was alive, this fraudulent psycho-babbler managed to procreate and produce a "purple menace" of his own. His son, Richard Socarides, is a Democratic political strategist, writer, commentator, attorney, and was a White House adviser under President Bill Clinton.
In the 1960s, it wasn't only homosexuals who were diagnosed as insane. In June 1970, in the Chicago Defender, Faith Christmas reported on a meeting of the Chicago Mental Health Association. Brian O'Connell, the executive director, spoke of the high incidence of mental illness in "ghetto" areas and how poor Blacks had inadequate health care. He also urged the medical profession to stop diagnosing "homosexuals, student activists, anti-war protestors and Black Panthers as being mentally ill."
Which brings me to Dr. Robert Spitzer, a psychiatrist who recently died aged 83. He seems to have been one of the good guys in the psychiatry business, encouraging the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973. The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives followed suit in 1975, then finally the World Health Organization dragging its feet in 1990. However, before we place Robert Spitzer's star on the LGBT Sidewalk of Fame, he wasn't perfect. In 2001, Spitzer delivered a controversial paper, "Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation?" In that paper he argued it was possible to change from homosexual to heterosexual. Spitzer wasn't gay himself, but that goes without saying. "Experts" on homosexuality are never homosexuals themselves.
So decades of medical "expertise" turned out to be a crock of poop. They were just using us as lab rats. We aren't gaga at all. In fact, Lady Gaga summed up homosexuality perfectly in one sentence: "You were born this way."
End of story.
