In contemporary Western society, the topic of human rights for homosex-
uals polarizes opinion in public and professional circles. While gay men and
women continue to suffer persecution, the swing of opinion has been to
liberalizing attitudes toward homosexuality. Some countries have changed
their laws so that homosexual acts in private between consenting adults are
no longer criminal offenses. The American Psychiatric Association in 1973
changed its official classification of homosexuality to "sexual orientation
disturbance". The trend has been to deemphasize the disease status of
homosexuality ^{110 169 175}. Why then bother to include it in a book about sex-
ual anomalies?

Although agreeing with the liberalizing of attitudes, I have included this
chapter for two reasons. One aim of this book is to understand sexual
anomalies. Homosexuality will remain an unusual sexual behavior in spite
of any social changes and it therefore merits study in its own right. It offers
one more avenue to understanding sexual behavior in general. Second, the
majority of available treatments have been applied to homosexuality and
not to other sexual anomalies. To discard it would ignore a great deal of our
knowledge on treatment methods. We can learn from that history and
perhaps we can apply much of what we have learned to other sexually
anomalous behavior that has not and will likely not be socially acceptable in
the near future. Knowing what treatments are available for homosexuality
and knowing their outcome offers the maximum freedom to the individual.
Some homosexuals may wish to change their sexual orientation in spite of
social reform. They, as well as therapists, should know the extent to which
this is possible. Clinicians who are concerned with relieving the suffering of

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