When did the american medical association change their mind that it is not a psychological disorder and why?
(this is a radically simplified history)
American Psychological Association (not Medical, AMA is a different organization.) changed their mind in 1973. Note this happened after a lot of activism in 1971 and 1972 from APA members and people outside the APA at the meeting sites for APA members.
Activism is always in your face, but there are different types of in your face. The activists had many various arguments such as clinicalizing all gay people as disordered thus has social repercussions and are used to persecute gays such as denying them jobs, housing, etc. The APA had no medical arguements why being Gay is Bad besides biases they brought without realizing they brought it to their analysis.
The argument that sold the APA was you could not identify who was gay or not gay, or the quality of their life in blind surveys. The activists argued that yes gay men, gay women (lesbians), bisexuals, etc may suffer a higher rate of depression (and other negative quality of life measures) due to stigma but that is not because of being gay itself.
So the 1973 APA compromised and removed Homosexuality from being a disorder in the sixth printing of the DSM II (1974), (first version of DSM II published 1968.) But the APA also put in a new disorder in 1974.
Sexual Orientation Disturbance (SOD). SOD regarded homosexuality as an illness if an individual with same-sex attractions found them distressing and wanted to change. Aka the Gay Conversion label to use a less clinical name for it. In 1980 the APA renamed SOD to “Ego Dystonic Homosexuality” (EDH), and in 1987 they removed it entirely.
*NM*