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Psychiatrist
who helped declassify homosexuality as mental illness dies
March 9, 2003 - Source:
http://uk.gay.com
Dr
John Fryer, the US psychiatrist credited with convincing his profession
to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental illness, has died
at the age of 65.
Fryer
appeared at an American Psychiatric Association (APA) convention
in 1972 in disguise under the name 'Dr H Anonymous', telling the
group that he had suffered discrimination and had to remain anonymous
because being gay would cost him his job.
The
following year, the APA's board of trustees removed homosexuality
from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Gay
rights activist Barbara Gittings, a friend of Fryer's who helped
him prepare for his appearance, said it made a big difference. "It
opened up things a great deal, because it made many psychiatrists
realise gays were not some abstract idea, but were in fact in their
profession."
Fryer
retired in 2000. He was recognized in 2002 by Vanderbilt University
Medical School with a distinguished alumnus award and by the Association
of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists with a distinguished service award.
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