When the WHO Finally Admitted Being Gay Isn't a Mental Illness (1990)

On May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization endorsed the ICD-10 and quietly removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. It was, in the words of the activists who had fought for it, a seismic moment - the day a global institution finally admitted that the science had been on our side all along. In this episode, we explore what that moment meant, what it cost to get there, and why it took 17 years after the American Psychiatric Association made the same call in 1973.

This episode goes back to the beginning - to Richard von Krafft-Ebing and the 1886 psychiatric text that framed homosexuality as degeneracy, to the DSM listing it as a sociopathic personality disturbance in 1952, to the aversion therapies and lobotomies and brain surgeries performed on gay people in the name of treatment. And then it tells the story of the people who fought back: psychologist Evelyn Hooker, whose groundbreaking research showed no measurable difference in psychological health between gay and straight men; Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings disrupting the APA's 1970 conference; and Dr. John Fryer testifying before the APA in a mask and voice modulator because he couldn't safely be himself at a psychiatric conference.

The 17-year gap between the APA and the WHO isn't a footnote - it's the heart of the story. During that stretch, countries around the world continued to treat queerness as an illness, shaping who got healthcare, who got insurance, who could immigrate, who kept custody of their children. Classification isn't abstract. It's funding. It's policy. It's someone's life.

Today that date is marked as IDAHOBIT - the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia - observed in over 130 countries. But the work isn't done. Conversion therapy still exists, still harms people, still costs lives. The same impulse that once classified us as sick shows up today in new language and new legislation. This episode is about the difference between being fixed and being helped - and why that distinction is everything.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What does it mean when the world finally says you were never broken? Hi there, I'm Chris with a K and welcome back to This Week in Queer History, where we find hope-filled, inspirational, and strategic moments from Queer History that we can use today. This week, we're talking about the moment that changed everything for LGBTQ people across the globe. May 17th, 1990, the day the World Health Organization officially removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. 1990. Yeah, let's get into it. This week and queer history. Stories told with love and gleam. Okay, so to understand why May 17th, 1990, was such a huge moment, we have to go back, way back, to when medicine decided queerness was a disease. In 1886, Richard von Kroft Ebbing published Psychopathia Sexualis, one of the most influential psychiatric texts of that era. And it framed homosexuality as a degenerative pathology. And that stuck. Carl Maria Kurtbenny created the word homosexual in the late 19th century. Yeah, we were being named and categorized way before we ever had the chance to define ourselves. So by the mid-20th century, it had really locked in. The first diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, or the DSM 1, published in 1952, it listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance. Yeah, sociopathic. The DSM II in 1968 moved it under sexual deviations, which maybe was a little better, but it was not a huge upgrade. And internationally, in the 1948 World Health Organization's classification, it had already listed homosexuality under sexual deviation. And that was right alongside pedophilia, bestiality. So the message was loud and clear. You are sick, and we will treat you accordingly. Oh, and they did. Aversion therapy meant electric shocks to your hands while you looked at images of people you were attracted to, nausea inducing drugs, ice baths. In West Germany through the 1960s and 70s, doctors performed brain surgery on gay men, literally destroying their hypothalamus. Walter Freeman performed thousands of lobotomies across the United States, and gay people were among his patients. When the Soviet Union, Article 121 sent gay men to gulags, and here in America, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 barred psychopathic personalities from entering the country. And this translated clearly to no homosexuals allowed. But the thing is, true science was never on the haters' side. In the 1950s and 60s, psychologist Evelyn Hooker conducted groundbreaking research. She gave psychological tests to both gay and straight men, and then had expert evaluators review the results blind. They couldn't tell the difference. There was no illness, no dysfunction, just people. Hooker's research broke through a barrier of junk science that had existed for decades. Then came the activists. Frank Kamney and Barbara Giddings disrupted the American Psychiatric Association's 1970 conference. They demanded that APA confront its own bias. The following year, Dr. John Fryer, a closeted psychiatrist, testified before APA wearing a mask and using a voice modulator because he didn't feel safe being himself at a psychiatric conference. Just think about that. But then, December 1973, the APA's Board of Trustees voted to remove homosexuality from the manual. And in 1975, they went even further, calling on professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma. Now, here we do have to take a little moment to point out that ego dystonic homosexuality, which means being gay and unhappy about it, that stayed in the manual until 1987. Yeah, that took a little longer for it to drop out of the manual. But now let's look at the bigger gap in change. The APA acted in 1973. The World Health Organization? Not until 1990. 17 years. During that entire stretch, 73 to 90, the WHO's manual still classified homosexuality as a disorder. That meant countries around the world, countries that looked to guidance from the WHO on health policy, funding, research priorities, they continued to treat queerness as an illness. It shaped who got health care, who got insurance, who got custody of their children, who could immigrate, and who was institutionalized. That's why this matters. Classification isn't just words on a page. It's funding, it's policy, and it's someone's life. But May 17th, 1990, the 43rd World Health Assembly endorsed a change, and homosexuality was gone from the list. Just like that. Except that it wasn't just like that. Not at all. It took decades of research, activism, suffering, and so much courage. And the ripple effects from the past kept moving through time. Alfred Kinsey had already shown that sexuality existed on a continuum. Sigmund Freud himself wrote in 1935 that homosexuality was nothing to be ashamed of. The science was always there. It just needed institutions to catch up. But even after declassification, conversion therapy persisted. And in 2009, an APA task force found conversion therapy was unlikely to change sexual orientation. A 2025 AMA study found that 42% of people who went through conversion therapy attempted suicide, compared to 5% who didn't. A 2022 study discovered that conversion therapy of youth costs $650 million per year, with 9.5 billion in associated costs. Today, 21 US states plus DC and Puerto Rico ban conversion therapy for minors. Only 21. That means that 29 other states don't. And because this isn't just a vote in a conference room, it's about what happens in the exam room, courtrooms, living rooms, and classrooms. The date itself, May 17th, became a symbol. In 2004, French scholar, and I'm gonna butcher his name, but please help me in the comments with a correction if you catch me mispronouncing it. Louis Georges Tin proposed an International Day Against Homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia. Or Idahobbit. Wait a minute. Idahobbit? No, Idahobbit. Idahobbit. Anyway, it was first celebrated in 2005 and has grown to be celebrated in over 130 countries today. In 2019, Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage on Idahobbit Day. Pretty powerful. But the work continues. The WHO's manual that took effect in 2022 finally reclassified gender incongruence out of the mental disorders chapter. This is an important step for trans acceptance. But today, conversion therapy has reared its ugly head again. Gender exploratory therapy, which targets trans youth. The ACLU reports 474 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2026, with over 170 of those targeting gender-affirming care. So let's make this personal for a moment. I grew up, and many of you grew up on the tail end of all of this progress. By the time I was seeing doctors, the APA had already said being gay was natural. And I took that for granted. I really did. It wasn't until I started doing this work that I realized if I had walked into a doctor's office and they thought being gay was an illness, it would no longer have been about helping me, it would have been about fixing me. And that difference, helping versus fixing, that's the difference between thriving and being an outcast. When a large organization like WHO classifies something as an illness, it gives permission. Permission to other people, to withhold resources, to fund fixes for sexuality and gender instead of support. But when that same organization says, actually, the science says it's natural, it changes everything. It goes from how do we fix you to how do we help you thrive. And that trickles down through every country, every healthcare system, every border, every political structure the WHO touches. I think about this through the lens of my own healthcare. I go to APLA Health, and it's here in Los Angeles. Give it out to APLA. They are an incredible facility. And my doctor, Dr. Jay Glasding, an incredible doctor, has he's been my doctor for a very long time. He's brilliant and he's so supportive. And he creates an environment where LGBTQ people can just be. Where the question is always, how can I enhance your life? Never let's fix what's wrong with you. And that culture only exists because they recognize the science. Because people before us fought for that recognition. And I'm benefiting from those changes that were made way before I was even in that room. A huge thank you to the members that you see on screen right now. Your support makes this all possible. And it helps me keep digging through archives and sharing the queer history that inspires us. If you'd like to join them, there's a link up above and in the description down below. And if membership isn't in your budget right now, no worries. Subscribing and hitting the bell helps more than you know. Most of all, thank you for being here. But we're not done because that same fear-based chanting that was labeling us as sick before, it's now alive again today. And anytime you hear someone talk about grooming, the idea that educating young people about LGBTQ identities is somehow dangerous or predatory, that's an old echo of being queer is an illness. It's the same old playbook. Tell everyone that being queer is a threat, then justify restrictions in the name of protection. But education has never been harmful. Education lessens fears, it breaks apart myths, it reduces harm. And when we say this is natural, we create space for young people to learn and to understand. And we don't create confusion, we create compassion. We open up the world for people to be as they feel they are. The science has always been there. We just need the institutions and the people to catch up. The WHO was 17 years late, but it finally got there. And we need that movement of truth to continue for trans rights, for global decriminalization, for every queer kid to have a doctor who asks, How can I help you as you are? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. What does it mean to be looked at as normal by your doctor? And what does Ida Hobbit mean to you? And if you haven't already checked out our circle community, you can check it out. We keep the conversation going all week long. We share history and we make connection. And if you want more queer history, just click this video popping up right over here. Until next time, stay strong, stay bold, and keep making history.