By Joanna Wuest
“Medical uncertainty” is no straightforward matter when it comes to LGBTQ+ health and civil rights. Take for instance the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals 2020 decision striking down a pair of municipal ordinances in Florida that had banned so-called “conversion therapy” for minors (contemporary psychology’s preferred nomenclature is “sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts”). In an enormous blow to the evidence-based notion that such change efforts are harmful — they are indeed responsible for much trauma and death — two Trump-appointed judges declared that the science of sexual orientation and gender identity was much too uncertain to justify the bans. Gesturing to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) renowned 1973 removal of homosexuality from its list of disorders, the judges explained that “it is not uncommon for professional organizations to do an about-face in response to new evidence or new attitudes.” Ergo, because the APA had changed its mind once fifty years ago, it may just as easily reverse itself again. According to this view, we may one day wake up to find that mental health professionals have reclassified queerness as a malady to be cured rather than a sense of self to be embraced and protected by law.
