MUMBAI: Homosexuality is not a mental illness or disease, the country’s psychiatrists said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), an umbrella body for psychiatrists across the country, said this in response to the furore over its former president Dr Indira Sharma’s statement on homosexuality last month.
Dr Sharma had said (TOI, January 19), “The manner in which homosexuals have brought the talk of sex to the roads makes people uncomfortable. It’s unnatural. Our society doesn’t talk about sex. Heterosexuals don’t talk about sex. It is a private matter.”
The lesbian-gay community had taken up the matter with the IPS. “Based on existing scientific evidence and good practice guidelines from the field of psychiatry, the Indian Psychiatric Society would like to state that there is no evidence to substantiate the belief that homosexuality is a mental illness or a disease,” said the statement by IPS president Dr T V Asokan and general secretary N N Raju.
The note added that the IPS would issue a detailed statement later. Dr Raju told TOI on Thursday that the majority had spoken. “Now that we have stated that homosexuality isn’t a mental illness, it’s no longer in the purview of psychiatrists,” he said, adding that views changed over time. “A few decades back, hypertension was considered a mental illness, and so was hyperthyroidism,” he said.
Dr Sharma, who heads the psychiatry department at Banaras Hindu University, wrote to TOI that she had given a talk on homosexuality at the IPS annual conference held in Pune in January. “I only said homosexuality is a social issue. Sexual orientation cannot be changed by enacting laws or by punitive measures. It has to come from within. The media has a responsibility to create awareness regarding society’s view on sexual orientation, whether it approves or disapproves it,” she said, adding that her comment was neutral.
Hillele 
THE MOST FAMOUS HOMOSEXUALS OF THE HISTORY
1. The Man Prague (5000 A.C.)
2. Sappho of Mytilene (600 A.C. – B.C.) Greek poet
3. Socrates (470-399 A.C. – B.C.) Greek philosopher
4. Plato (427-347 A.C. – B.C.) Greek philosopher
5. Alexander the Great (356-323 A.C. – B.C.) King of Macedonia
6. Wu (140-87 A.C. – B.C.) Chinese Emperor
7. Julius Caesar (100-44 A.C. – B.C.) Roman Emperor
8. Adriano (76-138 D.C.) Roman Emperor
9. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Holy and Father the Catholic Church
10. Benedict IX (1012-1056) Pope
11. Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) English king and Crusader
12. Eduard II (1254-1327) English king
13. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Renaissance artist, inventor and Italian scientist
14. Michalengo Buonarrotti (1475-1564) Architect, sculptor and painter Italian
15. Montezuma II (1480-1520) Aztec emperor
16. Julius III (1487-1555) Pope
17. Ieyasu Tokugawa (1542-1616) Japanese Shogun founder of the Edo Shogunate
18. John Alexander Normandy (1545-1640) French journalist and poet
19. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman
20. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English poet and playwright
21. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Playwright, poet and English actor
22. Christina Alexandra (1626-1689) Swedish queen
23. Philippe of Orleans (1640-1701) French Prince of Bourbon Dynasty
24. Peter the Great (1672-1725) Tsar of All Russia
25. Frederick the Great (1712-1786) King of Prussia and military leader
26. Madame de Staël (1766-1817) French writer and intellectual
27. Lord Byron (1788-1824) British poet
28. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish poet and writer
29. Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Euro-American writer and journalist
30. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Euro-American philosopher and poet
31. Herman Melville (1819-1891) Euro-American writer
32. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Euro-American poet
33. Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian composer
34. Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) French poet
35. Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) British author
36. Chief Crazy Horse (Tashunca Witko) (1849-1877) Chief tribe Oglala Sioux Chief
37. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) English writer and playwright
38. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) Songwriter and English artist
39. Sir Alfred Douglas (1870-1945) English writer and poet
40. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French writer
41. Sergei Diaghileff (1872-1929) Russian Ballet businessman
42. Willa Cather (1873-1947) Euro-American writer
43. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) French writer
44. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American writer and poet
45. William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British writer and playwright
46. Alice Babette Toklas (1877-1967) Euro-American writer
47. Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) British Writer
48. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) Novelist, essayist and British writer
49. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist and Nobel Prize
50. Ernst Röhm (1887-1934) German Nazi Military
51. Thomas Edward Lawrence -Lawrence of Arabia- (1888-1935) British soldier
52. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) Poet, diplomat, and feminist pedagogy Chilean
53. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French naturalist and writer
54. Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950) Russian ballet dancer
55. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) British writer
56. Cole Porter (1893-1964) Euro-American composer
57. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) American black singer
58. Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) Poet, playwright and prose writer Spanish
59. Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) German actress and singer
60. Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) Belgian-American british writer
61. Salvador Novo (1904-1974) Poet, essayist, playwright and Mexican historian
62. Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) British author and writer
63. Greta Garbo (1905-1990) Swedish nationalized American actress
64. Frieda Kahlo (1907-1964) Mexican artist and Activist
65. Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) Writer and poet
66. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) Writer, teacher and French philosopher
67. Bayard Rustin (1910-87) American Human Rights activist
68. Alan Turing (1912-1954) British mathematician
69. Tennessee Williams (1914-1983) Euro-American playwright
70. Chavela Vargas (1919-2012) Mexican singer
71. Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) Writer, poet and Italian film director
72. Truman Capote (1924-1984) Euro-American author
73. James Baldwin (1924-1987) Novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and social critic
74. Gore Vidal (1925- ) Euro-American writer
75. Andy Warhol (1928- ) Plastic artist and American filmmaker
76. Harvey Milk (1930-1978) Euro-American political
77. Andy Warhol (1930-1987) Euro-American Pop Artist
78. Audre Lorde (1934-1992) African-American writer and activist
79. Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972) Argentina poet
80. Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) Russian dancer
81. Ian Mckellen (1939- ) British actor of stage and screen
82. Antonio Arbulú Neira (1944- ) Peruvian psychologist
83. Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) Pop British singer/songwriter/musician
84. Elton John (1947- ) British Singer/songwriter/musican, singer
85. Pedro Almodovar (1949- ) Film director, screenwriter and producer Spanish
86. Juan Gabriel (1950- ) Mexican singer and composer
87. Janis Ian (1951- ) Euro-American Singer/songwriter/musician
88. John Travolta (1954- ) Actor, singer, dancer and pilot American aviator
89. Nathan Lane (1956- ) Euro-American actor
90. Martina Navratilova (1956- ) Czech tennis champion
91. Miguel Bosé (1956- ) Spanish actor and singer
92. Ellen Degeneres (1958- ) Euro-American Comedian/actor
93. George Alan O’Dowd (1961- ) Singer, musician and British disc jockey
94. Melissa Etheridge (1961- ) Euro-American Singer/songwriter/musician
95. Tom Cruise (1962- ) American Actor
96. Alan Cumming (1965- ) British Actor
97. Ricardo Fort (1968-2013) Singer, actor and producing Argentinian
98. Ricky Martin (1971- ) Singer, songwriter, actor and Puerto Rican writer
99. Nein Patrick Harris (1973- ) Actor, singer and the American director
100. Leonardo di Caprio (1974- ) Actor and producer of American cinema
101. Cristian Castro (1974- ) Singer, actor and Mexican composer
102. Pablo Ruiz (1975- ) Argentine singer
103. Emiliano Rafael Boscatto (1981- ) Conductor argentine television
104. Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (1985- ) Portuguese footballer