In the 20th century, the American Psychiatric Association viewed homosexuality as a mental illness and/or a disease. This widely influenced how the lesbian and gay community was viewed culturally, paving a path of discrimination and attempts at therapy that made the lives of homosexuals very difficult. It wasn’t until 1973 that the APA finally removed homosexuality from it’s official diagnostic manual. Since then, all major professional mental health organizations have gone on record stating that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.