2003 Annual Reports for Boards and Committees

COMMITTEE ON LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL CONCERNS (CLGBC) 2003 Annual Report

2003 Members: José Toro-Alfonso, PhD, Chair, (2001-2003); Sari H. Dworkin, PhD, Chair Elect (2002-2004); María Cecilia Zea, PhD, (2001-2003); Christopher Martell, PhD, ABPP (2002-2004); Gary Harper, PhD (2002-2004); Beverly Green, PhD (2002-2004).

Members to begin their terms of office on January 1, 2004 are George Ayala, PsyD, and Glenda Russell, PhD

2003 Outstanding Achievement Award Recipient: James M. Croteau, PhD.

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Presence in the APA Governance Structure: The Committee continued to identify and nominate candidates to APA Boards and Committees.

Science & Research: Dr. Zea and Dr. Harper proposed a special issue of the journal “Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology”, which was accepted. Dr. Harper is editing a special issue of the “Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community”.

2003 Convention: The Committee was involved in several activities at the 2003 convention: “Getting more active in LGBT psychology: APA: Division, & State Leadership,” the BAPPI Symposium “ Impact of Poverty on Mental Health ”, where Dr. Zea presented “Health and Mental Health Outcomes Among HIV+ Latino Gay Men,” and Dr. Toro presented “Poverty and HIV Risk Among Puerto Rican Youth,” an informal CLGBC meeting, the Div 44/CLGBC award ceremony, and a meeting of the Gender Identity Work Group.

Updating “ Lesbian & Gay Parenting: A Resource for Psychologists”: The Committee made several decisions regarding the revision of this report. First, three people were identified to served as reviewers. Second, the prior decision by CLGBC to reduce the coverage of the annotated bibliography to a focus on parental rights legal cases was reaffirmed. Third, the Committee also reaffirmed the prior decision to use PsycINFO abstracts in the annotated bibliography rather than original annotations.

Gender Identity: The Committee proposed the addition of gender identity to two APA policies: the Hate Crimes Resolution and the Bylaw on Member’s Bill of Rights. A Gender Identity Work Group (GIWG) was established with representatives of CLGBC, COPA, CYF, CWP, Division 35, Division 44, Division 51, and AWP. The GIWG contributed to the development of a proposal for an APA Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions, that was introduced as new business for the Council of Representatives in August.

APA Ban on Department of Defense Advertising in APA Publications: The Committee recommended that the proposal to repeal APA’s Resolution “Department of Defense Policy on Sexual Orientation and Advertising in APA Publications” be rejected. The proposal was introduced in the February 2003 Council of Representatives as New Business by representatives of the Division of Military Psychology (19) and the Division of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology (21). The Committee took the position that the ban should be kept as long as the U.S. military policy on sexual orientation discrimination is in place.

Issues in Process: There are some issues that were not finished during this year’s work; these are issues in process that the Committee should follow for the next term:

• International Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Coalition Participation;
• On-going communication and participation in LGB issues by state, provincial, and territorial psychological associations;
• The 10th revision of the ICD and its inclusion of sexual orientation as a mental disorder;
• Accreditation issues; and
• A “Pipeline” for training of lesbian, gay, and bisexual psychologist.