APA's Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns has a new name: the Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
The change was approved by APA's Council of Representatives, which also agreed to eliminate a former requirement that the committee be made up of equal numbers of men and women.
The committee's goals include encouraging research on sexual orientation and gender diversity as well as studying the issues related to psychologists' sexual orientation and gender diversity. When it was first established in 1980, the committee was known as the Committee on Gay Concerns. As time went on, the committee's name changed to be more inclusive. "Lesbian," then "Bisexual," then "Transgender" were added to the name in 1986, 1997 and 2007, respectively.
More recently, the committee recognized the gender parity language as not welcoming for those who identify as gender nonconforming or have a nonbinary gender identity. Requiring a balance of women and men was judged to be limiting and reinforcing of binary gender.
"We recognized our name and acronym could just keep growing by adding queer, questioning, intersex and two-spirit, among others, but ultimately the unending creativity and self-determination of our communities would lead to us to outgrow any labels," explains Committee Chair Sand Chang, PhD. "So we went with the domains of identity that we are addressing: sexual orientation and gender identity."
Chang says the change shows that APA "can adapt with the changing times and the ways that diverse groups need to be recognized, including with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity."
— Ron Schittler