Short Writing Assignment #4: Blog 1

Pentagon Changes Listing of Homosexuality as Mental Illness
November 16, 2006
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230102,00.html

Homosexuality has been a touchy subject among many people for quite some time. It is no surprise that it would also be an issue within our government. The Pentagon has changed its guidelines that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder. This was revised after criticism that did not like homosexuality being listed along with mental retardation and personality disorders. Who would blame them though? If you had that lifestyle would you want it to be considered the same as a mental disorder? There are many people that lead this lifestyle, and are completely normal mentally. Your sexual preference should have nothing to do with your mental capability. I think that it is clearly proven that people who lead the homosexual lifestyle have all of the same capabilities as everyone else. This is usually not the case for people with mental disorders. So if this is all true then why is our government still trying to classify them as having a mental disorder. Rep. Marty Meehan commented, "more than 30 years after the mental health community declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, it is disappointing that the Pentagon still continues to misscharacterize it as a defect." I agree with his statement, it is very sad that our government didn’t make that change even after mental health professionals declassified it. They are clearly putting down homosexuals and not recognizing their full mental capacity.