Gay Man Appointed Head Of APA

In move that will surely inflame the religious right, the American Psychiatric Association has appointed an openly gay man as its new CEO.

Dr. Saul Levin, who last year became the first openly gay head of the D.C. Department of Health, was named on May 15 as the new chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association. An APA spokesperson said Levin, a psychiatrist who has specialized in substance abuse treatment, becomes the first known out gay person to head the APA, which was founded in 1844 and represents more than 33,000 psychiatric physicians in the U.S. and abroad.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jack)

APA To Change Transgender Term In Coming Edition Of Diagnostic Manual

The American Psychiatric Association will change an offensive term regarding transgender people in its upcoming revision of their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The term “gender identity disorder”, for children and adults who strongly believe they were born the wrong gender, is being replaced with “gender dysphoria” to remove the stigma attached to the word “disorder”. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual decades ago. The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by psychiatrists in the US and other countries. The changes were approved on Saturday. Full details of all the revisions will come in May 2013 when the American Psychiatric Association’s new diagnostic manual is published. The changes will affect the diagnosis and treatment of millions of children and adults worldwide, as well as medical insurance and special education services.