Ronald Bayer traces the development of this decision in Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis. Bayer recounts the successful effort by homosexual activists to bring political intimidation and ideological pressure upon the American Psychiatric Association, eventually coercing the group to reverse its stand on homosexuality. Clearly, this was not in response to any sudden scientific "discovery," but the simple result of power politics.
As Bayer comments: "The entire process, from the first confrontations organized by gay demonstrators at psychiatric conventions to the referendum demanded by orthodox psychiatrists, seemed to violate the most basic expectations about how questions of science should be resolved. Instead of being engaged in a sober consideration of data, psychiatrists were swept up in a political controversy." Furthermore, "The result was not a conclusion based on an approximation of the scientific truth as dictated by reason, but was instead an action demanded by the ideological temper of the times." The American Psychological Association quickly followed the psychiatrists' lead, voting in 1975 to reverse its stance on homosexuality.