Homosexuality is no longer a disorder in Alberta

From here:

Alberta has removed homosexuality from its diagnostic guide to mental-health disorders.

Alberta Health and Wellness Minister Gene Zwozdesky ordered the section of the document removed Tuesday after a reporter brought the issue to the province’s attention.

“I ordered the immediate removal of something I thought was incorrect, unacceptable, rather ancient in its thinking and otherwise demeaning,” he said Wednesday.

“I’ve also asked for a thorough review of the entire classification categories.”

The diagnostic guide helps doctors decide what to bill for the treatment of patients.

Homosexuality was listed in the guide under sexual deviations and disorders.

The American Psychiatric Association stopped considering homosexuality a disorder in 1973, followed by the Canadian Psychiatric Association in 1982.

Zwozdesky said he doesn’t know why it remained so long on Alberta’s list.

The reasons given for the change are instructive:

something I thought was incorrect is hardly a scientific conclusion based on evidence.

unacceptable is a merely an expression of contemporary mores in much the same vein as frowning on farting at the dinner table.

ancient in its thinking is completely inaccurate considering the thinking in question must have been in vogue in the 1970s.

otherwise demeaning is even less scientifically convincing than the first reason.

It just goes to show that psychiatry owes more to political correctness than it does to empirically verifiable fact.

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