Psychiatrist Who Argued That Being Gay Is Not a Disorder Dies at 82

2
688

From The Advocate: “Richard Green, a longtime LGBTQ ally who was one of the first psychiatrists to speak out against the labeling of homosexuality as a mental disorder, has died at age 82. […]

In 1972, early in his career, Green wrote an article in The International Journal of Psychiatry taking issue with ‘the premise that homosexuality is a disease or a homosexual is inferior.’ The following year, the American Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

‘Those were times when, if you spoke up in support of homosexuals, people immediately thought that you were secretly homosexual yourself, or had unresolved sexual issues,’ Jack Drescher, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, told the Times. ‘Richard was very much heterosexual, and it took a lot of courage to argue for gay people.'”

Article →

Support MIA

MIA relies on the support of its readers to exist. Please consider a donation to help us provide news, essays, podcasts and continuing education courses that explore alternatives to the current paradigm of psychiatric care. Your tax-deductible donation will help build a community devoted to creating such change.

$
Select Payment Method
Personal Info

Credit Card Info
This is a secure SSL encrypted payment.

Billing Details

Donation Total: $20 One Time

2 COMMENTS

  1. What an exemplary legacy psychiatrist Dr. Richard Green has to his name. How brave he was to boldly stand up in 1972 to colleagues and psychiatry’s labelling of gay people and got this label removed from the DSM, especially as a heterosexual man who would then be accused of having his own sexual issues.