On this day in 1981 the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses; the event is now commemorated as the International Day Against Homophobia.
It needs to be re-iterated that the only thing sick about homosexuality is the treatment gay people receive, occasionally resulting in a sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on principally by religion. Since there are no arguments against homosexuality that aren't at their root religious in nature, may I suggest that religious fundamentalism take the place left by the removal of homosexuality from the list? Anyone who can listen to Christ's message of love and compassion and glean from that the desire to judge and punish and even kill another person is clearly suffering from some kind of delusion, and should be helped*.
As the image attests, there is still far to go; I took this picture in supposedly ultra gay-friendly Vancouver, in 2006. It is by no means the only anti-gay expression I've encountered in this city, nor is it by any means the worst; for instance, I used to encounter anti-gay sentiment on a weekly basis at work, where I could not be out. Yet I feel grateful that I live where I do, and not in a great many other places like Iraq, where the situation is much worse.
*And Christianity is by no means alone in all this; most religions preach love and peace and tolerance and do the exact opposite.
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