| Message from the
President of ALGBTIC, Anneliese A. Singh, Ph.D.,
LPC, NCC
Strengthening Our Community, Supporting
Our Queer Youth, and Social Justice
Welcome to all of our valued members and those
who visit our website! We are fortunate to have
a strong website, full of important resources
to support LGBTQ-positive resources in counseling.
Please do not hesitate to email me at
to
make suggestions, suggest links, or ask questions.
We have a strong leadership team within our division
and invite you to visit our leadership page and
consider joining one of our many committees!
For the next year, my goals for ALGBTIC are
to strengthen our community, support queer youth,
and address social justice issues. From our first-class
journal and newsletter to our conference events,
I will ensure our members stay connected to the
most current and pressing issues in LGBTQI counseling.
Our division was initially created as an attempt
to survive heterosexism within our profession,
and now it is time for our division to thrive.
We welcome new members and also celebrate our
long-time members. I would like to see our division
break 1,000 members this year, and we will also
be working on establishing our first divisional
conference.
My second goal of supporting queer youth is
a must for our division. With the recent
murder of 15-year old queer adolescent Lawrence
King by his 14-year old classmate and with suicide
continuing to be the number one cause of death
of queer teens, we must find ways to
support and nurture the resilience of our all youth
to express their gender and sexual identity within
safe family, school, and community environments.
The third goal of social justice is a fitting
one considering the recent re-emergence of those
within ACA who support conversion therapy. Our
division is a voice of reason, research, and
advocacy that will be at the ACA table to counter
those who believe gender and sexual identity
can be “changed.” I will also work
on building strong relationships with other divisions
to ensure that ALGBTIC is joined in our leadership
in the best legal and ethical practices with
queer clients. Our division will continue to
address the ways racism, sexism, classism, and
ableism affect our community, and ensure that
transgender member and client concerns are central
to our division. Encompassed in all these goals
is my commitment to making ALGBTIC a beloved
community for all those who believe
we are all liberated when we work to end heterosexism
and build queer and ally relationships.
“Without community, there is no liberation.”
~ Audre Lorde
“The ultimate measure of a person is not
where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where s/he stand in times of challenge and
controversy.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Highlights from ALGBTIC.org
At the Fall 2007 Board Meeting held in Columbus, Ohio during the recent ACES Convention, ALGBTIC President Phyllis Mogielski-Watson presented a donation to a local community organization, Stonewall Columbus.
Executive Director Karla Rothan accepted the $200 donation, earmarked for "Project Stefanie" which seeks to provide medical assistance to Transgender individuals while they are transitioning. The fund is named after a well known local woman, who, sadly, died because she could not afford her blood pressure medication. The ultimate injustice, according to Executive Director Karla Rothan, was the fact that Stefanie's family insisted on burying her as a male.
Stonewall Columbus was founded in 1981 as a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of gay men and lesbians in Central, Ohio. At the time, its supporters marched with bags over their heads to hide their identities. Since then, the organization has undergone many changes, and it recently purchased a 4,000 square foot building in the LGBT district, where it operates a Community Center.
If you would like to check out this wonderful organization, and see the amazing work they do, please go to http://www.stonewallcolumbus.org.
Submitted by Edward Cannon, Board Trustee
ALGBTIC is proud to announce the birth of our
new journal, The Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling,
to be published by Haworth Press. The first edition
will be out summer/fall of 2005, and will be published
quarterly.
To learn more, and/or for
submissions guidelines, please see our journal
page.
Other highlights:
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Statement
from ALGBTIC Division
on Conversion Therapy
The Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC)
supports the American Counseling Association’s
statement on “conversion” therapy
(also called “reparative therapy”),
which deems this therapy unethical because it
has no sound scientific basis and does harm to
people who identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer). We believe it is of
the utmost importance that the existing ACA Ethics
Committee statement opposing conversion therapy
NOT be overturned.
The purpose of ALGBTIC’s current statement
is to remind all counselors of the importance
of therapeutic interventions that affirm an individual’s
LGBTQ identity when she or he seeks treatment.
Recently, there has been a renewed effort to
overturn ACA’s position that conversion
therapy is unethical by the American Association
of Christian Counselors. We reject this organization’s
views as they are scientifically unfounded and
have no evidence that conversion therapy does
no harm to clients.
What You Can Do To Ensure LGBTQ Clients Receive
Ethical Treatment in Therapy Regarding Their
Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity:
- Write Brian Canfield (canfield@sandiego.edu)
to express your disagreement with the efforts
to legitimize reparative therapy.
- Contact your Governing Council representative
to ask that she or he does not support any
motions that would overturn the Ethics Committee
2006 Statement on Ethical Issues Regarding
Conversion Therapy. You can get the email of
your Governing Council representatives at the
link below: http://www.counseling.org/AboutUs
/GoverningCouncil/TP/Home/CT2.aspx
- Recommit to providing ethical, affirmative
treatment for LGBTQ clients.
- Read the ALGBTIC Competencies on working
with LGBTQ Clients at the link below: http://www.algbtic.org/
resources/competencies.html
- Forward this statement to your colleagues,
friends, and family who support ethical treatment
of LGBTQ people.
For More Information:
ACA Ethics Committee – 2006 Statement:
Ethical Issues Regarding Conversion Therapy:
http://www.counseling.org/PressRoom
/NewsReleases.aspx?AGuid=
b68aba97-2f08-40c2-a400-0630765f72f4
Read an article by Warren Besen (LGBTQ activist/author)
about the “ex-gay” movement:
http://www.waynebesen.com/2008/
02/ex-gay-quack-therapists-declare-war.html
Book Resource: What the Bible Really Says
about Homosexuality
http://www.visionsofdaniel.net/bookWBRS.htm
Read about the petition effort to legitimize
reparative therapy by the American Association
of Christian Counselors
http://aacc.net/2008/02/13/letter-to
-the-american-counseling-association/
Call for Special Edition Submissions
The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender
Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC), a division of
the American Counseling Association (ACA) is
inviting submissions for our second special
edition of "The
Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling". This
edition will focus on addictions and substance
abuse among the LGBT community. The intent of
this special edition is to publish articles relevant
to working with sexual minorities around issues
pertinent to family and relationships, and that
will be of interest to counselors, counselor
educators, and other counseling related professionals
that work across a diversity of fields, including
in schools, mental health settings, family agency's,
and colleges and universities. Learn
more about the second special edition of "The
Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling"
ACA Responds to Pentagon Document
ACA responds to the Pentagon's document that
classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder.
This document was recently released and includes
outdated information about sexual orientation.
From the Associated Press, "the document
outlines retirement or other discharge policies
for service members with physical disabilities,
and in a section on the defects lists homosexuality
alongside mental retardation and personality disorders."
In response, ACA President, Patricia Arredondo,
sent a letter requesting that the Department of
Defense updates this document. The
complete letter is included here... Please
feel free to thank President Arredondo for her
support of lgbt issues.
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