Speech #990001060

Mr. President. the legislation Im introducing today will strike from the Immigration and Nationality Act provisions that require the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] to deny admis.on into the United States to aliens suspected of being homosexuals. Specifically. section 212(a)(4) of Lhe Immigration and Nationality Act presently provides for exclusion of "aliens afflicted with psychopathic personality. sexual deviation. or mental defect." This provision of the law was first enacted in 1952 as part of the McCarranWalter Immigration Act. As originally written. the statute applied to "aliens afflicted rith psychopathic personality. epilepsy. or a mental defect." In 1965 the words "sexual deviation" were substituted for "epilepsy." In other words. the 1965 amendment established legislatively that homosexuality was a specific example of an affliction requiring an examination of the person by the Public Health Service [PHSJ and certification that the disease or mental defect was not present before an applicant could be admitted to the United States. In 1973. the American Psychiatric Association formally declared that. in its view. homosexuality per se is not a mental disorder.