A lecture held at the Theological Faculty of the University of Oslo Thursday June 23, 2005

By Svein Skeid

As a part of Europride 2005, ReviseF65 was invited to hold a lecture at the Theological Faculty of the University of Oslo, on the subject: "SM - health or disease?".

The attendants were 90 gay and lesbian christians from all over Europe (“European Forum for Christian Gay and Lesbian groups”). A couple of hours earlier that Thursday, the conference had been officially opened by the Norwegian Minister of Church and Culture, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland (Christian Democrat).

Before I came in, I was introduced as leader of the ReviseF65 committee, and Gay Person of honour in Norway 2003, after having worked in the field of gay, lesbian and SM human rights for over two decades.

In the beginning of the lecture, I wanted people to have a good laugh. And I wanted to emphase that gay leatherpeople comes out of the closet twice. First as gays and lesbians, and thereafter as SM/fetish/leathermen and women.

At this picture, I have been introduced, and I am on my way to "get out of the gay closet" by removing my Derl Viktor mask. But under there is another (Recividist Grizzly) mask (!). And the attendants at the seminar start to laugh because they expected to see my face ;@)

Here, I have removed my Derl Viktor mask (symbolizing the gay closet). But still there is another closet. The leather/SM closet symbolized by the Recidivist Grizzly mask that I am wearing.

“Well, we can say that I just came out of the closet now, can't we?”

"Do you know that gay leathermen and lesbians have to come out of the closet twice – first as homosexuals, and thereafter as leather people, transvestites, fetishists or sadomasochists", I tell the audience, before I also pull off my second Recidivist Grizzly mask.

I have started the main lecture, after the mask performance in the beginning. "For many people into SM, leather and fetish, sexual preference or orientation is an important part of their personality. A part of their identity", I say to the audience. "When somebody discriminates against any of my friends, or against our entire group, they also discriminate against me, because I belong to this group."

Today I represent the ReviseF65 group, whose aim is to delete SM and Fetish diagnoses from the the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) published by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Revise project concerns both gays, straights and transgender people. Therefore the group consists of Leather/SM/Fetish men and women who represent organizations of Leather and SM gays, lesbians, bi- and heterosexuals, as well as professionals in sexology, psychology and psychiatry.

The name "F65" is a chapter in the International Classification of Diseases describing the so called "Paraphilias", earlier called "perversions". It also contains other paraphilias. Obviously, we are only rallying for the SM and Fetish diagnoses that concern consenting adults.

”I would also like to know a little bit about you people who are attending this seminar! Several of my leather/SM-friends have connections with a church community and religion. Obviously there is some overlap between the two groups ;@)”, I say.

”Therefore I ask you:
How many of you are into or are in some way attracted to some sort of fetish, transvestism, bondage or SM – mild or hard?”

5-10 of the attendants thereafter rise their hands!

”According to the Kinsey Institute”, I continue, ”between 5 and 10 per cent of the population are oriented towards some sort of SM, fetishism, or transvestism, and the proportion between homosexuals and heterosexuals in this group is as in the rest of the population.”
http://www.revisef65.org/antall.html

”That should imply that 5-10 of you folks attending here today are attracted in some way or another to SM/fetish.”

There is no evidence of a more serious psychopathology in persons with an SM, fetish, or cross dressing orientation than in other people. Despite new research, the views in psychiatry on the subject of SM, Fetishism and Fetishistic transvestism, have hardly changed in the last 100 years.
http://www.revisef65.org/psykopatologi.html

If leather, rubber, nylon stockings or mutual bondage play are an important part of your life, the World Health Organisation thinks you suffer from a mental disorder. According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), which is used as a manual in health care professions all over the world, 10 percent of the population suffer from a SM-disease!

Since the gay diagnoses were removed in the U.S. in 1973, and have no longer been applied for the last twenty years, gay leathermen, SM dykes and transvestites, remain the only categories in the homosexual community that are still diagnosed on the basis of their mutual love, identity and sexual orientation.

Leather people have been considered healthy for the last ten years by most researchers, by US psychiatrists, and by the State of Denmark. Despite this fact, Fetishism, Fetishistic transvestism and Sadomasochism are still branded as mental illnesses by the World Health Organization.

According to DSM-IV, SM and Fetishism only becomes a diagnosable dysfunction when urges, fantasies or behaviors "cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning." In addition APA clearly indicate that "a paraphilia must be distinguished from the non-pathological use of sexual fantasies, behavior or objects as a stimulus for sexual excitement."

As we state in our letter to the Norwegian Health Department, professionally ill-founded and obsolete diagnoses such as these, constitute an infringement of the human rights of the minorities that are described, and they hinder prophylactic health care efforts that are needed in these groups of people.

Besides being a matter of human rights…

This is also a women's rights and lesbian rights question!

Like the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality that is no longer applied by the WHO, the SM and Fetish diagnoses are rarely used for therapeutic purposes. Instead, these definitions are abused to justify harassment and discrimination of the SM/fetish population from laymen and judicial institutions. Much of the discrimination is directly or indirectly a result of the diagnoses. As with other forms of abuse, women are the chief sufferers, losing their jobs, or even their children, because of their SM love, lifestyle and self-expression.

A Norwegian example:

In 1997, a 42–year-old woman in Eastern Norway let herself be pressured by her own lawyer to give up the custody of her two daughters after a divorce. The lawyer considered that the woman had a poor legal case because SM is defined as a psychiatric illness in Norway. This happened after her ex-husband got hold of the woman’s holiday photographs which showed her interest in SM – sadomasochism. He passed the photographs on to his lawyer. The children were also informed about the woman’s orientation. Today, the woman lives 250 English miles away from her children, but has partially regained contact with them after many years without contact.
Source: SMil-bladet, no. 2, 2002.
MORE EXAMPLES AT:
http://www.revisef65.org/discrimination.html

As a minority within a minority, gay and lesbian leatherpeople also experience discrimination within the homosexual movement. Leatherpeople have played a role in the modern gay rights movement from the very beginning in Norway and abroad. ”Without a face”, we are still working for the welfare of gay and lesbians in general.

The famous Christian and lesbian Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson showed the exhibit “Ecce Homo” in Scandinavia and Europe from 1998 to 2000.

She says: ”In the way I read the gospels”, “Jesus showed solidarity with the weak groups in the society. Gay leatherpeople, transvestites and HIV-positive people are the groups that occupy the lowest position within society. That’s the reason why I have chosen to show them in my pictures”, she says.

“Love and diversity make you strong”. That is the message from the Gay and Lesbian movement. At this European conference, you are talking about love, respect and confidence. You want to understand more of each others, and find strength in the differences between us.

Elisabeth Ohlson says it in this way:
Nowhere I have learned so much about friendship, love and confidence, as from the gay leatherpeople! They have been my “human teachers”.

A friend of mine says it in another way: ”I don't believe that you can practice SM without feeling love for yourself and for other people. Because; without LOVE, there is no reel respect. And without respect you cannot have confidence.”

Gays and lesbians are just like most people – they are different! And the Norwegian Lesbian and Gay movement is for everybody, queers and leatherdykes included!

The Norwegian Lesbian and Gay movement works for the right to be different, including our own double minorities! Stigmatizing minorities by considering their sexual orientation as a psychiatric condition is as disrespectful as discriminating against people because of their race, ethnicity or religion.

Our committee has only considered the three diagnoses in F65 that we have mentioned above, and which treats as illnesses what should be seen as interaction between adults, based on free consent, equality, and mutual understanding. We do not object to the other diagnoses, remaining in this section, which is not between consenting adults.

What can you do?

As with the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality; The more countries that change their national diagnoses, the greater the possibility that WHO will follow suit.

You can make a donation by using the pal pay button on our web page.

You can read more at our website www.reviseF65.org, and join the mailing list.

Spread the word, and make a link to ReviseF65.org from your own website.

Cooperate with gay and fetish groups to plan national strategies for the deletion of the diagnoses.

Try to convince mental health professionals to work with us, and gain support from sexologist, psychologist and psychiatric associations in your country.

Approach the health authorities on a national level as was successfully done in Denmark in 1995.


AFTER THE LECTURE, we got in contact with persons in the audience from a group of people working to revise the F65 chapter in France. We are looking very much forward to keep in contact with them!

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