As much as progress has been made in promoting gay rights and sensitivity, it seems there are some individuals who still fail to make peace with the concept. One such person is Rep. Glen Gruenhagen from the state of Minnesota, arguing that people of the LGBT orientation are mentally ill and need to ‘’receive treatment’’ rather than legal recourse.
As he was being interviewed by radio host Chad Hartman in the past week, the Minnesota lawmaker made it clear that he would not entertain extremist views by promoting a bill that makes it mandatory for transgender individuals to only use bathrooms that relate to their ‘’biological sex’’ and not gender.
In Gruenhagen’s view, the law is framed along the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM – V), which as he put it, classifies all LGBT people as mentally ill. Contrary to his statements, the DSM – V was revised in 2012, referring to transgender individuals as being afflicted with Gender Dysphoria, rather than, ‘’gender identity disorder.’’ This made it clear that the issues arising from the asymmetry of gender and biology was not in fact a mental illness. The same was the case for homosexuals until the DSM update of 1973.
Gruenhagen was quick to take the moral high ground, stating, “I have friends who are homosexual, and I have friends who are former homosexuals, okay?” to Hartman. “The Centers for Disease Control — which is not a right-wing organization, I think we can all agree on that — recently came out with the report that we have between 65 and 100 million Americans that have an STD. 65 to 100 million. We’re approaching one third of our population has an STD.”
To this Hartman responded, “You are telling the millions of people in this country who are homosexual — and the rest of their lives are no different than me or yours — but that the reason they have described themselves as homosexual is because they have an unhealthy sexual addiction?”
Taking the bait, Gruenhagen replied, “You can go on the Internet and there’s treatment for sexual addictions right here in Minnesota, whether it’s pornography or unhealthy sexual behavior. You can receive treatment for that and be free from those compulsions.”