Homosexuality and mental health services

By inviting us to “identify the particular needs of lesbians and gay men” the Health of the Nation Key Areas Handbook on Mental Illness touches on complex issues.1 For ours is a deeply homophobic society: gay men and lesbian women face prejudice at home, school, work and even in death.*RF 2-4* They are assaulted by their families2 and by strangers.5 The discrimination is pervasive: some is derived from statute law,6 black youngsters chant death threats at gay men in mimicry of a popular song,7 and in BMA News Review distributed to all general practitioners and BMA members, a doctor recently wrote: “Only a society flirting with self-destruction encourages such perversity and ruination. Under no circumstances ought homosexuality be regarded as anything other than a destructive habit system.”8 Similar prejudices were voiced by opponents of this week's parliamentary amendment …