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302.00 Ego-dystonic Homosexuality

The essential features are a desire to acquire or increase heterosexual arousal, so that heterosexual relationships can be initiated or maintained, and a sustained pattern of overt homosexual arousal that the individual explicitly states has been unwanted and a persistent source of distress.

This category is reserved for those homosexuals for whom changing sexual orientations is a persistent concern, and should be avoided in cases where the desire to change sexual orientations may be a brief, temporary manifestation of an individual's difficulty in adjusting to a new awareness of his or her homo- sexual impulses.

Individuals with this disorder may have either no or very weak heterosexual arousal. Typically there is a history of unsuccessful attempts at initiating or sus-taining heterosexual relationships. In some cases no attempt has been made to initiate a heterosexual relationship because of the expectation of lack of sexual responsiveness. In other cases the individual has been able to have short-lived heterosexual relationships, but complains that the heterosexual impulses are too weak to sustain such relationships. When the disorder is present in an adult, usually there is a strong desire to be able to have children and family life.

Generally individuals with this disorder have had homosexual relationships, but often the physical satisfaction is accompanied by emotional upset because of strong negative feelings regarding homosexuality. In some cases the negative feelings are so strong that the homosexual arousal has been confined to fantasy.

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