[11] Specific protests by gay rights activists against the APA began in 1970, when the organization held its convention in San Francisco.
[12] The activists disrupted the conference by interrupting speakers and shouting down and ridiculing psychiatrists who viewed homosexuality as a mental disorder.
[14][15] Psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who served as technical consultant to the DSM-II Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics, became a go-between in the dispute.
[17] Psychiatrist Richard Green, who had argued forcefully in favor of declassifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, viewed Spitzer's insistence on including a diagnosis for homosexuals who were distressed by their sexuality as a poorly disguised attempt to maintain homophobic bias in the DSM, and publicly resigned from the APA nomenclature committee over it.
[18] Meanwhile, critics argued that declassifying homosexuality was a result of pressure from gay activists and demanded a referendum among voting members of the APA.
[12] Despite the retention of "sexual orientation disturbance", gay activists celebrated the removal of homosexuality from the APA's list of mental disorders and declared victory.
Kameny, now the head of the Mattachine Society of Washington, said, "This represents the culmination of a decade-long battle," and Ronald Gold of the National Gay Task Force declared, "We've won.
"[19] The APA published a position statement that urged an end to anti-homosexual discrimination and called for decriminalizing private sexual acts between consenting adults.
[11] In the DSM-III, published in 1980, "sexual orientation disorder" was reworked as "ego-dystonic homosexuality" and the overarching categories were reorganized.
[20] The decision to include this reworked diagnosis in the DSM-III came after years of continued debate and controversy, both public and private.
[25] Leading up to the publication of the DSM-III-R, it had become clear to more and more people that the inclusion of "sexual orientation disturbance" and later "ego-dystonic homosexuality" in the DSM was the result of political compromises rather than scientific evidence, and that neither diagnosis actually met the definition of a disorder; critics pointed out that by the same logic, short people unhappy with their height could be considered mentally ill.[23] Also influential was that it had been proven that psychological therapies could not "cure" homosexuality.