OK, mental illness was the wrong word, I should have said mental disorder. Just wanted to clarify that, it shouldn't make too big of a difference anyway.
You missed my point completely - maybe i didn't make it very well.
IF homosexuality is an illness, then it has symptoms, the biggest one being an attraction to the opposite sex. Another symptom- the one i am talking about - would be manifestations of 'gay pride' (which would be a great way for a contagious disease to insure against its demise, but i digress). I can't think of another 'illness' that has this effect on its 'sufferers', but it raises a point about what defines mental illness.
Well if your 'point' is in fact not a point at all but simply raising a question about the definition of mental disorder then I've really got nothing to say here. I don't believe that 'gay pride' is a symptom of homosexuality. My last post was an attempt to explain what I believe causes gay pride.
Until quite recently, epilepsy was listed in the USA as demonic posession.
Look: Why would people suffering from an illness exert so much pressure convincing the wider world that they are not, in fact, ill?
And if an ill person doesn't want to be cured, does that suggest to you that their illness might be in your head? Does it not pose moral questions to you about forcing treatment on someone?
I'm not sure when the epilepsy thing was changed but homosexuality was taken off the DSM-II in 1973/'74. I'm not sure when or even if your statement about epilepsy came about, do you have a link?
Disorders inflicting the brain are
very different to those affecting other parts of the body. People with paranoid schizophrenia often refuse to accept that they have a problem for example. Mental disorders are often not as obvious (eg manic depression) and so it can appear that nothing is wrong. The difference between manic depression, paranoid schizophrenia and homosexuality is that the latter is a mental disorder that brings people together (sexual intercourse requires two or more people) and therefore communities are more likely to be formed.
I am hesitant to treat people with homosexuality just as much as I am to treat people with bowl cancer of paranoid schizophrenia. A schizophrenic may not want treatment forced on him or her, but to not do so would be to endanger his or her health and possibly life. The same applies to homosexuality. It would be inhumane to do anything else. Liberals who support homosexuality are just encouraging people to not seek help for their mental disorders and I think that is disgusting.
The political pressure you mention that somehow managed to change scientific opinion (has this ever happened before?) means that the large number of gay people exerting it don't want to be cured - so who are you to decide that a) they are all wrong about how they feel and b) that they need to be 'cured' regardless?
There are laws in place that force treatment upon sufferers of a whole range of mental and physical illnesses. For example, people found not be be of sound mind can have treatment forced upon them and cannot have euthanasia (in most countries where euthanasia is allowed). People suffering from homosexuality are not of a sound mind just like the paranoid schizophrenic who assures everybody that the aliens really are out to get him or her.
you don't see leper colonies banding together and fighting to be left uncured. If anyone is unhappy about who they are - gay, transgender, nosejob, whatever - they can try and do something about it. It's sad in each case but i don't see it as anyone's duty to try and stop them making their own choices, as long as no one else is being harmed. Live and let live.
Leprosy is a physical illness with obviously detectable symptoms and causes. Mental disorders are a whole different kettle of fish because there are often no apparent causes and the effects are often difficult to notice. I assume you wouldn't see it as anybody's duty to cure a manic depressant or a paranoid schizophrenic either? If you truly believe this then I go back to my previous comment about the evolution of bleeding heart liberals into their current form of 'you have AIDS, suck it up cupcake'. It just sounds heartless and inhumane.
Treatments? Nice euphimism... in your own words... Wow, are you serious?
It's not a euphemism, there really are treatments for homosexuality like all other disorders. Some involve just therapy, others I assume, would also include a prescription of medication (but I don't know about that, I'd have to do some more research).
If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?