ify homosexuality as a mental disorder, an outcome of intense lobbying by early homosexual organizations starting in the late 1960's. So, after more than twenty years of reporting that homosexuals were mentally ill, one might imagine that Time and Newsweek would have found the APA's decision big news. Not so, however, as neither one reported the event. Indeed, some seven months before the December 1973 decision, Newsweek (May 21, 1973) ran an article about the growing debate over the issue. It was headlined: "Are Homosexuals Sick?" But the news of the APA's vote was not reported in Newsweek until nearly three years later, as part of an article about the campaign for gay and lesbian civil rights. Time reported the declassification some five months after the APA decision, albeit superficially, and was still saying six years later (January 8, 1979) that it was a "highly political compromise. ... [A] bit like dermatologists voting to ordain that acne is indeed a skin blemish, but only if the acne sufferer thinks it is." The Stonewall Riots of 1969 and the intense political activism that followed in their wake led to fundamental changes in the newsweeklies' reporting on gay and lesbian issues. The use of derogatory terms like "pervert" and "degenerate" quickly declined by fifty percent, with a commensurate increase in the use of the words "gay" and "lesbian." The 70's also saw a rise in the number of visual images of real gay men and lesbians, and the start of routine quoting of gays and lesbians--albeit modified by words like "admitted," "avowed," "committed," or "confessed"--in articles about their lives. On September 8, 1975, Time ran its first cover photograph of a real gay man or lesbian (as opposed to an illustration). Pictured was Air Force sergeant Leonard Matlovich, who had won a Purple Heart medal for service in Vietnam, with the headline: "I Am a Homosexual." Its news ...
