Initiated by: Michelle D. Vaughan, PhD, former chair, 2008 Updated by: Eddy Ameen, PhD, assistant director, and Julia Benjamin, chair, 2015
In the fall of 1992, the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students was presented with a proposal to charter a task force on sexual minority concerns. Based on the findings of a paper on heterosexism and bias in graduate training programs in psychology, the focus of the task force was fourfold: (1) to identify problem areas; (2) to advocate and facilitate change; (3) to educate new APAGS members of resources; and (4) to communicate with offices and student affiliates of other sexual minority organizations.
From 1992 into 1993, the six-member working group began to address each of these areas and requested that APAGS establishing a Standing Committee on LGB issues to continue this work and provide one hour of programming for a conversation hour for LGB students and their allies at the 1993 APA convention in Toronto.
In 1995, the APAGS Survival Guide for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Students was created, marking the first of what would become a series of resources specifically created for sexual minority students.
In 2001, the subcommittee changed its name to APAGS-CLGBTC, formally including transgender students into the organization as a response to a desire to become more transgender-inclusive.
Also in 2001, the subcommittee conducted their first needs assessment of LGBT graduate students to better understand and address the issues facing their constituents.
In 2002, the subcommittee developed and distributed a number of resources for students, including The LGBT Guide to Graduate School, The LGBT Guide to Convention and the Introduction to Guide to LGBT Psychology Issues and Resources. APAGS-CLGBTC also began to focus convention workshops on issues of interest to sexual minority students, co-sponsoring a workshop on clinical applications to transgender clients.
Beginning in 2002, mentoring for students became a major priority for the subcommittee, leading to the co-sponsorship (with Div. 44) of the original LGBT Mentoring program, which successfully recruited nearly 100 mentors and mentees and created over 30 matched pairs.
In 2003, the subcommittee advocated to maintain a ban on military advertisements in APA publications and to support efforts by AFFIRM (Psychologists Affirming their LGBT Families) to create reading lists for graduate clinical training programs in psychology.
In 2006, the subcommittee oversaw and edited the first edition of the "Resource Guide for LGBT Graduate Students in Psychology."
In 2008, the subcommittee developed the current iteration of the APAGS LGBT mentoring program, allowing students to be matched with advanced graduate or professional mentors, with over 20 pairs being matched in the first six months of the program.
In 2010, APAGS provided comments to the APA Committee on LGBT Concerns regarding same sex marriage equality and held a signature drive in support of marriage equality, resulting in thousands of supporters.
Between 2010 and 2015, APAGS hosted numerous programs at APA conventions related to LGBT advocacy and awareness including a student social for LGBT and allied students, a letter-writing campaign to congress in support of marriage equality, an ally training workshop, and several speaker panels on such diverse subjects as invisible and hypervisible LGBT graduate student identities, best practices in discussing sex with LGBT clients and controversial LGBT topics in graduate training.
Between 2012 and 2015 the mentoring program increased from 44 pairs of mentors and mentees to over 60. It also hosted professional development webinars and conference calls for participants, and developed an email list for discussion and reflections within the mentoring program
In February 2013, the committee met and developed its first strategic plan to guide its work for the coming years.
In 2014, APAGS-CLGBTC officially changed its name to the Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (CSOGD), in an effort to be as inclusive as possible for all students.
In 2014, APAGS allocated up to $3,000 per year for diversity-focused psychological science research projects. This is in addition to the other LGBT related grant that APAGS gives out each year: the LGBT Dissertation Grant for $1500.
Every two years, APAGS sends diverse graduate student representatives to the National Multicultural Conference and Summit and also co-sponsors, along with the APA Ethics Committee and Division 44, the participation of several LGBT students of color who are winners of a paper prize.
APAGS routinely invites LGBTQ applicants for leadership positions to participate in other APA and APAGS business meetings and conferences, to promote a culture of diversity in psychology leadership.
APAGS-CSOGD continues to advocate for LGBT graduate students and promote awareness about LGBT-related topics through numerous avenues. These include our mentoring program and convention programming as well as writing blog articles, training videos on LGBT issues, and providing feedback to APA on resolutions and guidelines related to LGBT practice, research and training.
APAGS-CSOGD will release the 2015 edition of its Resource Guide by August 2015 and it will be freely available to members of APA and APAGS.
