Distinguished Book Award

These works represent highly valuable contributions to scholarship that synthesize research and practice and advance the development of science, practice, and policy on LGBT issues in psychology.

The division offers this award for a book that has made a significant contribution to the field of LGBT psychology. The award is generally given to a book published within the two years prior to its nomination. The division encourages self-nominations by authors, as well as nominations from publishers and readers. These works represent highly valuable contributions to scholarship that synthesize research and practice and advance the development of science, practice and policy on LGBT issues in psychology.

Annual deadline: March 31

Please send nominations electronically to Division 44. Include a CV and a nomination letter that addresses the nominee's qualifications for the award. Every member of the Awards Committee also needs copies of the book, either hardcopies or electronic copies. Upon submission of the CV and nominating letter, the author or nominating person will be contacted by the Awards Committee with addresses identifying where to send the books.

2026

• Addressing Minority Stress and Enhancing Resilience with Diverse LGBTQ+ Clients
  Authors: Nicholas A. Livingston, Brian A. Feinstein, & M. Paz Galupo
• Embracing the Complexity of Gender: Inclusive, Feminist, & Developmental Exploration
  Author: Emily Keener

2025

• Surviving Transphobia
  Author: Laura A. Jacobs, LCSW-R
• Gender Affirming Therapy: A Guide to What Transgender and Non-Binary Clients Can Teach Us
  Authors: Laura Scarrone, Michael Beattie, and Skye Davies

2024

• Handbook of CNM-Affirming Mental Health Practice
  Authors: Michelle D. Vaughn, PhD and Theodore R. Burnes, PhD
• Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments
  Author: Lucie Fielding, PhD
• LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychological Interventions. A Latine/x Perspective
  Authors: Reynel Alexander Chapparo, PhD and Roberto L. Abreu, PhD
• Desire: An inclusive guide to navigating libido differences in relationships
  Author: Lauren Fogel Mersy, PsyD and Jennifer A. Vencill PHD, ABPP
• Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent’s Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground
  Author: Chris Tompkins, LMFT

2023

• Case Studies in Clinical Practice with Trans and Gender Non-Binary Clients: A Handbook for Working with Children, Adolescents, and Adults
  Author: lore m. dickey, PhD, ABPP
• The Psychology of PCOS: Building the Science and Breaking the Silence
  Author: Stacey L. Williams, PhD
• Counseling in a Gender Expansive World: Resources to Support Therapeutic Practice
  Author: Douglas Knutson, PhD, LHSP, ABPP
• Mental Health Practice with LGBTQ+ Children, Adolescents, and Emerging Adults in Multiple Systems of Care
  Edited by Cristina Magalhães, PhD, Richard Sprott, PhD and G. Nic Rider, PhD, LP
• Affirming LGBTQ+ Students in Higher Education
  Edited by David P. Rivera, PhD, Roberto L. Abreu, PhD, and Kirsten A.,Gonzalez, PhD
• Queer Theory and Psychology: Gender,Sexuality, and Transgender Identities
  Author: Eileen Zurbriggen, PhD, & Ella Ben Hagai, PhD

2022

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies
Authors: Abbie Goldberg, PhD and Genny Beemyn, PhD

2018

A Recent History of Lesbian and Gay Psychology: From Homophobia to LGBTopens in new window. London, UK-Routledge, by Peter Hegarty, PhD

2017

Affirmative Counseling and Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Clients edited by lore m. dickey, PhD, and Anneliese A. Singh, PhD

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Schooling: The Nexus of Research, Practice and Policyopens in new window edited by Stephen T. Russell, PhD, and Stacy S. Horn, PhD

2016

Sage Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studiesopens in new window edited by Abbie E. Goldberg, PhD

2015

APA Handbook on Sexuality and Psychology by Deborah L. Tolman, EdD and Lisa M. Diamond, PhD

2014

The AIDS Generation by Perry N. Halkitis, PhD

2013

Handbook of Psychology and Sexual Orientation, edited by Charlotte J. Patterson and Anthony R. D’Augelli

2012

A Positive View of LGBTQ: Embracing Identity and Cultivating Well-Being by Ellen Riggle and Sharon Rostosky

This book starts a new conversation about the strengths and benefits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGTBQ) identities. Positive LGBTQ identities are affirmed through inspiring firsthand accounts. Focusing on how LGTBQ-identified individuals can cultivate a sense of well-being and a personal identity that allows them to flourish in all areas of life, the authors explore a variety of themes. Through personal stories from people with a variety of backgrounds and gender and sexual identities, readers will learn more about expressing gender and sexuality; creating strong and intimate relationships; exploring unique perspectives on empathy, compassion, and social justice; belonging to communities and acting as role models and mentors; and, enjoying the benefits of living an authentic life. Providing exercises in each chapter, the book offers those who identify as LGBTQ and those who support and love them, as well as those seeking to better understand them, an opportunity to explore and appreciate these identities.

2011

The Initial Psychotherapy Interview: A Gay Man Seeks Treatmentopens in new window, edited by Charles Silverstein

The book is published by Elsevier. The book is organized around an hour-long interview with "Scott," a 30-year-old gay man who seeks treatment from Dr. Silverstein after the death of his much loved and admired gay older brother. While his brother's death serves as the catalyst for Scott seeking treatment, this profound loss is only one part of the story. The transcript of Silverstein's interview provides rich clinical data for a myriad of authors to reflect and comment on in their chapters of the book. This is an exceptional and important contribution to our practice literature.

Also of note are Charles Silverstein's important contributions to the history of our division, as he was one of the participants in the very first Div. 44 symposium at an APA Convention. That symposium honored those pioneers who had provided the courage, leadership, and personal role models necessary for the founding of Div. 44. The participants were Adrienne Smith (chair), Del Martin, Charles Silverstein, Gerald Davison, Judd Marmor, and Harold Kooden; with Stephen Morin and Evelyn Hooker as discussants—an all-star panel of our profession, if ever there was one.

2010

When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage by M.V. Lee Badgett

Badgett shows, as we know, the heavens don't fall and heterosexual marriages don't crumble. And, as we would expect, many gay couples benefit, sometimes in surprising ways, from the legal, social, and political rights that the institution offers. Badgett takes readers to a country where it has been legal for same sex couples to marry since 2001, the Netherlands, and she examines all sides of this issue. This includes how same sex couples decide whether to marry, the controversial nature of marriage in the gay and lesbian community, the implications of same sex marriage for heterosexual marriage as an institution, and how marriage has the potential to change fundamentally gay identity and community. Badgett collected the data and her careful cross national study of this extraordinary moment in the history of Western marriage is a unique and essential contribution to discussions about same sex equality.

2010

Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Cycle by Abbie E. Goldberg

This ground-breaking book, published this year by the APA, focuses on the family life transitions—how couples meet and decide to marry, decisions to have children, changing roles when an infant is born, their experiences and those of their children. Until now, however, nothing covered these turning points in the lives of gay men and lesbians. In this time of increasing discussion about lesbian and gay parenthood, such research is particularly useful in informing us about the normative aspects of life transitions and their relationships to the lesbian and gay community. Some of the findings are expected; others are more surprising. Integrating both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this book incorporates a range of disciplines and highlights understudied aspects of same sex parenting, such as termination of couple relationships. With practical recommendations in every chapter, this book is an indispensable resource for those who research lesbian and gay mental health and family issues as well as those who provide services to lesbian and gay parents and parents-to-be.

2009

Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desireopens in new window, by Lisa M. Diamond, PhD

This groundbreaking book was published to much acclaim, including being featured, with its eminent author, on the Oprah show. A landmark book with the potential to permanently change the landscape of sexuality studies, Sexual Fluidity is well written and theoretically driven. The book traces Dr. Diamond's ten year study of sexual development that has produced both scientific data and fascinating personal stories that help us better appreciate the lives of young women as they come to an understanding and expression of their sexual development. It offers a new paradigm, while not in contradistinction to men's sexual development, that is unique and worthy of our consideration.

The life narratives by the young women are unparalleled is in their honesty and complexity as they intertwined their sexual and romantic attractions, desires, and behaviors. Reviews note this book as ground breaking, insightful, and one of the most important books on women's sexual development in decades.

2008

Affirmative psychotherapy with bisexual women and bisexual menopens in new window, edited by Ronald C. Fox, PhD

An outgrowth of Dr. Fox's many years of clinical practice, education, and advocacy on behalf of bisexual men and women, his groundbreaking volume helps to further the research and practice of Psychology as it relates to this area. There is a paucity of literature on affirmative psychotherapy with this population and the contributors to Dr. Fox's volume offer an enlightened model that moves us past a polarized to a multidimensional view of the interrelatedness of all forms of sexual orientation. This compilation will assist therapists who seek to provide culturally competent services to bisexuals who are transgender, African American, in their senior years, and heterosexual spouses of bisexual men and women. Dr. Fox also devotes space in the book to chronicle the history of APA's and Div. 44's own evolution of inclusiveness of sexual minorities. The wide range of topics within this book related to bisexuality will likely provide a framework for advances in practice and scientific investigation for years to come.

2007

Out in Psychology: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Perspectivesopens in new window by Victoria Clarke, PhD and Elizabeth Peel, PhD, Editors

This book is notable for its exploration of international research, theory, and practice in the field. It is only the second British edited LGBT psychology text and the first edited collection from the UK to integrate trans and queer perspectives into LGBT psychology. Out in Psychology brings together 38 established LGBT psychologists from the U.S., U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia to explore a wide range of topics. The book represents a refreshing perspective on well established topics such as lesbian and gay health and LGBT youth, as well as new topics such as sports and individual differences. Out in Psychology brings innovative perspectives and an international framework, and promises to be an important addition to the literature in LGBTQ psychology.

2006

Same-Sex Marriage: The Legal and Psychological Evolution in Americaopens in new window by Donald J. Cantor and Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender Variant People and Their Familiesopens in new window by Arlene Istar Lev

2005

The New Gay Teenageropens in new window by Ritch Savin-Williams

2004

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Clientsopens in new window by Christopher R. Martell, Steven A. Safren, & Stacey E. Prince

2004

No More Secrets: Violence in lesbian relationshipsopens in new window by Janice I. Ristock

2003

Lesbian & Gay Psychology: New Perspectivesopens in new window by Adrian Coyle & Celia Kitzinger (2002). Oxford, UK: Blackwell

2003

Handbook of Affirmative Psychology with Lesbians and Gay Menopens in new window by Kathleen Y. Ritter & Anthony I. Terndrup. (2002). New York: Guilford

2002

Conversion Therapy: Ethical, Clinical, and Research Perspectivesopens in new window by Ariel Shidlo, Michael Schroeder & Jack Drescher (Eds.) (2001). New York: Haworth Medical

2001

Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clientsopens in new window by Ruperto M. Perez, Kurt A. DeBord and Kathleen J. Bieschke (Eds.) (2000). Washington, D.C.: APA

1999

Lesbian & Gay Youth: Care & Counselingopens in new window by Caitlan Ryan and Donna Futterman. (1998). New York: Columbia University Press