[DanaC]

The American Psychiatric Association only removed homosexuality from it's guidelines in the early 1970s.


Incidentally, I also have spoken to quite a few transgender people about the psychiatric aspects of their treatment and a few other matters. I was part of a working group that looked into the local health trust's provisions for transgender patients.

The move away from considering it a purely psychiatric condition has been fought for for a very long time. And, funnily enough, the most ardent advocates for keeping that designation were the psychiatrists whose living consisted primarily of 'treating' transgender patients.

I use 'treating' in that way, because I heard some pretty disturbing testimonies about power trips from those who had absolute power over their patients ability to progress their treatment to a final conclusion.

For example: did you know that as an NHS patient seeking gender reassignment, you not only had to show that you had lived as your target gender for two years, but also that you had to be in employment? (though that may have been peculiar to our health trust).

Why?