Staff in the APA Advocacy Office and I have been working closely with the Div. 44 Public Policy Committee (PPC), Co-chairs Christina Patterson, PhD, and Michele Schlehofer, PhD, for several months now on resources to support advocacy efforts of state psychological associations and others interested in this work. Drawing largely from resources drafted or published by the Div. 44 PPC, we are pleased to let you know that to this end new web content is now available: Resources for Grassroots and State-Level Advocacy on LGBTQ+ Issues.
Also, as most of you have no doubt already seen, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the state level is already in full swing (Advocates brace for anti-LGBTQ backlash at state level after Biden victory), as are efforts to advance favorable legislation, so we are especially pleased to get this new content published and promoted now.
To help orient users of this content and engaging in state level advocacy, there was a webinar titled Psychology and LGBTQ+ State Legislative Advocacy 2021 on February 17, which was recorded and is now available on YouTube.
This webinar introduces new online resources for psychologists to inform advocacy on state legislation affecting LGBTQ+ people. It is intended to serve as a one-stop-shop, self-serve, suite of resources that can be expanded upon and updated as needed over time. The project is part of the Initiative to Connect Psychology and LGBT+ Legislative Advocacy by the Div. 44 Public Policy Committee, the APA Advocacy Office, and the Public Interest Directorate’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Portfolio. Leadership and members of state psychology organizations are encouraged to attend, as are all APA members interested in state legislative issue advocacy efforts.
We welcome your reactions to these new resources and thoughts you may have for improving upon them. If you have examples of letters you have written to your state legislators, transcripts or video of expert testimony you have provided or are willing to write up personal accounts of your advocacy activities that can help introduce such activities to colleagues who may be interested but have not yet done so, please send them to us directly or via email.