Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medical Group Issues Apology For Previously Treating Homosexuality As Mental Illness And The Trauma That Caused
Reuters: U.S. Psychoanalysts Apologize For Labeling Homosexuality An Illness
The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) apologized on Friday for previously treating homosexuality as a mental illness, saying its past errors contributed to discrimination and trauma for LGBTQ people. It may be the first U.S. medical or mental health organization to issue such an apology. Although psychiatrists declassified homosexuality as a disorder in 1973 and psychoanalysts came around nearly 20 years later, the APsaA says it is unaware of any related professional group that had apologized. (6/21)
The Washington Post: How Parents Can Help Dismantle Transphobic And Homophobic School Climates
Back in the early and mid-2000s I taught sex education at an after-school program in New York City. One day we invited in some teens who were part of a local LGBTQ youth group to talk about their organization. During that conversation, it became clear that those students had experienced tremendous amounts of hostility. And, unfortunately, that seemed completely normal to all the young people in the room. (Friedrichs, 6/21)
The Washington Post: Transgender Women Killed In Prince George's
After Ashanti Carmon was found shot dead in Prince George’s County in late March, it was the D.C. transgender advocacy community that organized a candlelight vigil, gathering a crowd under falling rain to mourn the slain transgender woman. When another transgender woman, Zoe Spears, was found gunned down recently just blocks away from where Carmon was killed in the town of Fairmount Heights , LGBTQ advocates from the District again stepped in to call attention to the homicides. (Schmidt, 6/22)
