199216
Homosexuality
POSITION STATEMENT
Approved by the Board of Trustees, December 1992
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"Policy documents are approved by the APA Assembly and Board of Trustees… These are …position statements that define APA official policy on specific subjects…" -- APA Operations Manual. |
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This position statement was proposed by the Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues of the Council on National Affairs.1 Whereas homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) calls on all international health organizations, psychiatric organizations, and individual psychiatrists in other countries to urge the repeal in their own countries of legislation that penalizes homosexual acts by consenting adults in private. Further, APA calls on these organizations and individuals to do all that is possible to decrease the stigma related to homosexuality wherever and whenever it may occur.
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1 The members of the Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues are Richard A. Isay, M.D. (chairperson), Margery Sved, M.D., Rochelle L. Klinger, M.D., Debbie R. Carter, M.D., Robert M. Kertzner, M.D., Jeffrey Akman, M.D. (consultant), Daphne Lanette Atkins, M.D. (consultant), Robert P. Cabaj, M.D. (corresponding member/Assembly liaison), Mark H. Townsend, M.D. (corresponding member), and Kenneth Ashley, M.D. (APA/NIMH Fellow).