posted November 16, 2006 11:45 PM            

WASHINGTON — Pentagon guidelines that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder now put it among a list of conditions or "circumstances" that range from bed-wetting to fear of flying.

The new rules are related to the military's retirement practices. The change does not affect the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits officials from inquiring about the sex lives of service members and requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.

The revision came in response to criticism this year when it was discovered that the guidelines listed homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Mental health professionals said Thursday they were not satisfied by the change.

"We appreciate your good-faith effort to address our concern that the document was not medically accurate," James H. Scully, head of the American Psychiatric Association, wrote David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "But we remain concerned because we believe that the revised document lacks the clarity necessary to resolve the issue."

The guidelines outline retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities. The rules include sections that describes other specific conditions, circumstances and defects that also could lead to retirement, but are not physical disabilities.

Among the conditions are stammering or stuttering, dyslexia, sleepwalking, motion sickness, obesity, insect venom allergies and homosexuality.

"More than 30 years after the mental health community declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, it is disappointing that the Pentagon still continues to mischaracterize it as a 'defect,' said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said "homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder. A clarification has been issued."

The psychiatric association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973. Questions about the Pentagon's guidelines were raised in June by a research institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

posted November 17, 2006 02:37 AM              

quote:

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Wow, fox news....your favorite source AG? It's so fair and balanced, I feel like a libra just watching it.

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"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"-Khalil Gibran

posted November 17, 2006 02:47 AM              

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theyve probly got liberalism listed as a mental illness too

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If I'm not mistaken that very thing actually did happen. It came up on the threads here awhile back....

posted November 17, 2006 04:40 AM              

Everyone one knows gay people have it sussed...men have more of an understanding of men and women of women.,,,,

MENTAL.....nah I DONT think so....

Ignorant fools!

posted November 17, 2006 12:12 PM              

Dont you just detest narrow minded people gripped by fear and bigotry......Uuuugghhhh!!!!

I am presently thinking about becoming a lesbian haha....its just one of the things I never tried in life....of course I am already mentally ill, so I suppose i would not have the fear and stigma of discovering something I already knew...

Excuse my sarcasm guys, but I find some things in life totally absurd...

posted November 17, 2006 12:40 PM            

Until then, I will continue to go with the fact that the Military Census closely mirrors the US population stats and not some biased statement.

Now, back to the issue at hand, calling homoesexuality a "condition", "defect" or "mental illness" is shameful.

My homosexual friends are not defective nor do they suffer from a mental illness because of who they fall in love with.

****edited to add

The PENTAGON did not list Liberalism as a mental disorder. That is just a blatant lie. Here is the actual thread.
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/002771.html

posted November 17, 2006 01:19 PM            

Btw Sue, what's a craic and what does sussed mean?

AG here's an interesting article about a rather shameful trend in the military: It appears that gay discharges drop severely during times of war. So I guess they need the gays to fight the wars, but otherwise they're not cool enough to be in the "club." Not surprising coming from an institution that used to keep black units separate from whites.

http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/Publications/2005_06_CRSAnalysis.htm

Pentagon statistics show that annual discharge rates for homosexuality conformed to a clear pattern after the passage of "don't ask, don't tell."[2] In six out of the first seven years following the 1994 passage of the law, discharges of gays and lesbians increased, raising discharges from a low of 617 in 1994, to a high of 1,227 in 2001. Then, following the September 11 attacks, discharges declined every year for the past three years reaching a low of 653 in 2004. The pattern can be visualized as an upside-down "V," rising then falling.

The CRS attributes this clear pattern to "random fluctuations" in the data.[3] But CRS arrives at its conclusion about the random nature of the data via a statistical sleight of hand. In particular, the CRS report combines the rising discharge figures from the first seven years of the policy with the falling discharge figures from the most recent three years, thus focusing on the average number of discharges since the passage of "don't ask, don't tell" rather than the clear trend described above. The combination of the rising rates with the falling ones yields an average discharge rate that is roughly comparable to the old, pre-Clinton average discharge rate in the same number of years before the passage of "don't ask, don't tell." As such, "don't ask, don't tell" seems to have the same impact on the rate of gay discharges as its predecessor.

As will be explained below, however, the past three years of falling discharges are the result of a practice of troop retention that has followed from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As was the case with every other war since World War II, the rate of gay and lesbian discharges has declined as a result of the current war.

In short, the CRS report relies on average discharge rates to conceal two clear trends which show that discharges first climbed after "don't ask, don't tell" became law, and only fell once the U.S. went to war and began to struggle with troop shortfalls. The effort to conceal the trends by taking the average of the pre-9/11 and post-9/11 discharge rates, and to dismiss the pattern as the product of "random fluctuations in the data," appears to misconstrue the unavoidable conclusions of the evidence—that "don't ask, don't tell" correlated with a significant climb in discharge rates, and that, during wartime, discharge rates fell.

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III. Disavowal of an embarrassing pattern

Scholars have found that gay discharges have fallen during wartime for every American war since World War II, the first time records were kept.[4] Supporters of gays in the military argue that this pattern is hypocritical in light of the Pentagon's claim that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would undermine unit cohesion. According to this position, if gays undermined unit cohesion, no effort would be made to retain higher numbers of them during wartime, when cohesion is most important. The fact that discharge figures always go down during wartime, supporters argue, reflects an understanding among military commanders that gay service members are valued when the requisites of military effectiveness are at their most critical—during combat.

The CRS report disputes the argument that the declining number of discharges during wartime is attributable to a military practice of retaining troop strength by suspending the discharge of known gays. Their reasoning is this: The discharge figures were declining prior to this war, and apparently continued to decline after its completion. According to the CRS report, if the military were intentionally trying to retain gays during the war, "we would have expected to see a drop in the wartime discharge rate followed by an increase following the crisis." Such an increase, it concludes, "is not evident in these data."[5]

The first Gulf War lasted approximately six weeks. The discharge data provided by the CRS report is annual and does not break down discharges by week or month. It is therefore not possible to determine from the provided data whether or not there was a drop in the discharge rates immediately following the war. In fact, however, the Wall Street Journal reported finding a set of instructions informing commanders that they should stop firing gays during the conflict, and which also reported that the military resumed discharging known gay troops after the return of peacetime.[6] According to the military's own documentation, then, its practice was the same during the first Gulf War as in all other wars: the military retains gays during wartime, and fires them during peacetime.

posted November 17, 2006 02:16 PM              

No my husband wouldnt mind me becoming a lesbian, he probably would be bloody relieved... and I am sure he would love to watch... .

Craic in Ireland means having a good time,,,,,haha and sussed means sorted...like if you have me sussed you have got me figured out? Does that explain it....

So if you hear someone say "let go out for some craic" it dont necessarily mean lets go and get some droogs or the other meaning...you know a lady's love garden,,,didnt want to use the other word, as it wouldnt seem appropriate somehow to use on such a refined and demure forum....

love to ye guys...and yeah I am going out for some craic tonight....xx