system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Was the removal of homosexuality from the DSM the result of political pressure or from the evolving view of doctors that homosexuality is not a mental illness?

I'm jut wondering how the decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM came about. Maybe this is a more historical question than a pure social science question. I've tried googling for the answer, but there seems to be a lot of bias/lack of clarity.
gpt
In all likelihood, it was both.

Kinsey et al. demonstrated in the Kinsey Reports (1948; 1953) that homosexuality was more common than previously assumed, and that the sexual orientations and behaviors of both men and women fell on a spectrum rather than a binary. Ford and Beach, in *Patterns of Sexual Behavior* (1951), presented findings of same-sex behaviors in numerous human cultures and animal species, and concluded that there is a basic mammalian capacity for same-sex behavior.  
Evelyn Hooker administered psychological tests to 30 self-identified homosexual men and compared the results with those of a matched group of 30 heterosexual men (the men were paired based on equivalent IQ, age, and education). In her paper *The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual* (1957), she presented findings that the homosexual men were comparable to their heterosexual peers in terms of mental adjustment. Experts who were asked to examine the unmarked psychological profiles could not differentiate the two groups based on mental health. This challenged the prevailing notion that homosexuality was in itself an inherent cause of mental illness.

Following Kinsey's and Hooker's studies, more research was directed to focus on nonclinical samples of homosexual men and women (i.e. ones with no background of mental illness). This, coupled with improved methods of assessing human personality (e.g. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) and mental disorders (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), proliferated inquiry into human sexuality. Research conducted with the new measures repeatedly produced results that indicated that homosexual men and women were essentially similar to their heterosexual peers in mental health.

A campaign to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from the DSM was launched by gay rights activists (e.g. Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society) in the early 1960s, which was strengthened by the Stonewall riots. Given the results of research, activism was directed at the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.  
Following advocacy both outside of and within the American Psychiatric Association, the association began evaluating research and literature to assess the status and validity of homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1973, the board of trustees and general members voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM and issued a statement supporting civil rights protection for gay people and calling for the repeal of sodomy laws, among other things. The American Psychological Association followed suit in 1974.

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^(Bayer, R. (1981)^). ^(*Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis*)  
^(Hooker, E. A. (1957)^). ^(The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual; *Journal of Projective Techniques*, 21)  
^(Kameny, F. (2009)^). ^(How It All Started; *Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health*, 13)  
^(Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948)^). ^(*Sexual Behavior in the Human Male*)  
^(Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., & Gebhard, P. (1953)^). ^(*Sexual Behavior in the Human Female*)