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Pentagon: 'Gays are sick'

Decades after mental health experts abandoned the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder, a newly uncovered Pentagon document lists being gay alongside retardation and other mental problems, the Associated Press reported.

The document was found by the Centre for Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. A Pentagon spokesman told the wire service that the document was under review.

The US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy bars the Pentagon from asking about a service member's sexual preference but orders discharge for those who are openly gay. Last year, 726 military members were discharged under the policy, the first time that number had increased since 2001, the AP said.

The newly uncovered document, called a Defence Department Instruction, was criticised by the American Psychiatric Association, which in a recent letter to the Pentagon's top doctor noted that the APA backed off the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder in 1973, the wire service reported.

Nine members of Congress wrote a letter to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday asking that the Pentagon review its policies, the AP said. It did not identify the lawmakers nor the specific contents of their letter. - (HealthDayNews)

Read more:
Gay, lesbian and bisexual Issues

June 2006

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