The dramatic surge of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in many states has caused greatly increased efforts by Division 44 members to provide psychological information and resources to aid the individuals, families, and professionals in coping with these stressful and harmful situations.
According to the PBS Newshouropens in new window, twenty states now have laws that ban or restrict gender-affirming care for minors. The psychological harm for transgender and gender non-binary youthopens in new window is dramatic. Families are being forced to cease life-changing medical treatment or to move to another state. Psychologists and other health-care professionals are unable to provide professional care or risk losing their license.
Glenda Russell, PhD, joined with Will Betke-Brunswick, a cartoonist, to produce two posters for Out Boulder Countyopens in new window to help young people interrupt the toxic messages and support the LGBTQ+ community. These posters use a turtle to focus on the stress and resilience responses for individuals and an alligator to point out the personal, interpersonal and institutional actions one can take to make a difference. View or download the posters for printing.
Other members of Division 44 have compiled resourcesopens in new window and produced webinars and educational materials for a timely response to this campaign against trans and non-binary youth and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
- APA supports the benefits of gender-affirming care and offers a series of talking pointsopens in new window
- Em Matsuno, PhD, and Sebastian Barr, PhD, provided a YouTube recorded discussionopens in new window of these issues: “Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Clients in Hostile Environments”
- Division 44 members have provided a valuable resource on non-binary populations (PDF, 3,0KB)opens in new window
- Shawn V. Giammattei, PhD, has an education and support network for parents with gender diverse offspringopens in new window that has a subgroup for parents with nonbinary, gender expansive offspring across the life span.
- Division 44 Public Policy Committee in collaboration with APA developed advocacy resourcesopens in new window on LGBTQ+ issues at the grassroots and state level
Perhaps the most important thing one can learn from Division 44 members is that we have been there before – many times. Each time we have used empirical research, published peer-reviewed articles, created amicus briefs, formed networks with allies, testified in courts and legislatures, and created change.
We were there before. When I applied for my license in psychology in 1970, homosexuality was illegal in New York state and nearly all others. Gay men were arrested in bar raids and their names published in newspapers to destroy their careers. Senator McCarthy was purging “suspected homosexuals” from the U.S. government as threats to national security. I wondered if I would be denied licensure since, at the time, I was technically considered mentally ill – until 1973, when this miraculous cure happened through the revision of the DSM by the other APA. As we all know, Division 44 past-president-elect Charles Silverstein gave persuasive testimony to the panel revising the DSM based in part on the published research of psychologist Evelyn Hooker. Soon there was an Association of Gay Psychologists and a Committee on Gay Concerns and an amicus brief for the NY State Supreme Court that overturned the law which had led to the arrest and public humiliation of so many gay men in New York.
We were there before when Anita Bryantopens in new window, the Florida orange juice promoter who was the public face of an antigay “Save our Children” campaign, sparked similar attacks in other states, such as in California's efforts to ban gay teachersopens in new window. It was a time of struggle and resilience in the nascent lesbian and gay movement as nationwide organizations and local newspapers were developing to counter this backlash to our movement and also to the women's movement and the Civil Rights Movement.
We were there before when President Ronald Regan refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic as the CDC and NIH dithered and even the New York Times refused to report on the efforts of the Gay Men's Health Crisisopens in new window to raise funds and fight the government bureaucracy to save lives.
At each step of the way, we – Division 44 members – joined the fight, gathered allies, and promoted resilience. Each gain led to resistance and hostility. But the AIDS epidemic made the world aware that gay men are our neighbors and friends. Same-sex marriage made us aware that love and family is more important than gender roles and stereotypes. Now LGBTQ identities have become familiar concepts in daily life.
But here we are again, this time with trans folks under attack. The unusual, the unexpected, the unknown is often fearful. The too-human response to fear is anger and hostility. So, we in Division 44 are fighting fear with empirical research and facts. We will be stalwart and supportive of each other and trust that this struggle also can become an unfortunate historic relic of the polka-dotted history of the United States.