It’s Been 50 Years Since Homosexuality Was Declassified As A Mental Illness. A New Play Tells The Story

A new play showing in Hollywood all this month dramatizes the real-life struggle in the 1970s to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), often referred to as the "Bible" of psychiatry.

SICK follows the story of entertainment journalist and gay rights activist Ron Gold, who was subjected to barbaric gay aversion therapy, including electroshock treatments, as a young man.

Gold famously disrupted a behavioral health conference in New York City in 1972, further bringing the psychiatric establishment’s attention to the diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental illness.

His speech, Stop It, You’re Making Me Sick, at the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) 1973 convention in Honolulu — in which he vehemently protested against the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness in the DSM — was a major moment in the gay rights movement.

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SICK writer and director Dahn Hiuni said the ultimate decision by the APA to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, spurred on by activists like Gold and several others, was a true turning point.

“Other than Stonewall, this was the most important change, because what could we have done without it? You have to take away the mental illness label for anything else to happen,” Hiuni told LAist.

Hiuni said he crafted his play around the real-life speeches of Gold as well as psychiatrist John Fryer, whose 1972 speech before the APA set the stage for future activism and change.

Recent protests against an LGBTQ+ Pride assembly in North Hollywood and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment displayed outside a Glendale School District meeting brought words and images of hatred to the streets of L.A. County, just as Pride celebrations were preparing to kick off.

“It’s one step forward, two steps back in this country unfortunately,” Hiuni said outside The Broadwater theater shortly before his production’s opening night. “But that’s why I feel that this play might be very timely, especially for the younger generation to learn about the history that they may not know about."

Wearing 70s flared pants that are part of his Ron Gold costume in SICK, Actor Mikel Farber said there’s at least a few particular lines in the play he believes you could copy/paste to the present day and they would be just as relevant.

“I actually think gay people have a lot to teach the world about the real differences between human beings and our capacity to love and co-exist,” Farber said, quoting a fragment from Gold’s words in the play. “Someday you’re going to understand how wrong you were but ‘til then you’re just going to have to trust us in our sanity.”

“Yes this is a very specific story that took place 50 years ago, but it translates,” Farber added.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the APA’s decision to remove homosexuality as an official diagnosis in the DSM, which Hiuni called “the most critical point for gay liberation and for the subsequent LGBTQ movement.”

Hiuni’s play also includes activist Barbara Gittings, psychiatrists John Fryer and Robert Spitzer and other figures integral to the gay rights movement.

SICK will be at The Broadwater’s main stage in Hollywood (1076 Lillian Way) throughout June.

Info on tickets and showtimes is available at the Hollywood Fringe Festival website.