APA Council Representatives

Representatives

Our current Reps to Council are Robin Buhrke, Terry Gock and Sari Dworkin

Mission

Our Council Representatives are the voice for LGBT issues on the APA Council of Representatives, the official decision-making body of the APA. We currently hold three seats on Council. Council is reponsible for passing and making official APA policy such important documents as the Guidelines for Psychotherapy with LGB Clients and the recent resolution in support of same-sex marriage.

Recent activities

This was one of the most dramatic and important sessions of the Council of Representatives in recent years. There were a number of motions presented to the Council for action that are of significance to the interests of LGBT psychologists and persons. The role of psychologists in U.S. detention centers had captured the attention of many outside psychology, particularly the media. The Association showed its commitment to democratic values and principles in the way it conducted the debate from beginning to end. APA had planned 8 sessions on the convention program for any and all to present their views. All sessions were open to the media, including the floor of Council when President Brehm introduced the agenda item for debate. So many members of APA on both sides of the debate deserve our thanks and recognition for their thoughtful and respectful handling of the issues, especially our own Doug Haldeman, member of the Board of Directors, and Steve Behnke, Director of the APA Ethics Office. A complete discussion of this topic can be found in the Newsletter.

Resolution on Religion, Religion-Related, and/or Religion-Derived Prejudice

In another significant move, Council adopted a resolution which, for the first time, opposes the use of religion as a basis for discrimination. This was a resolution that the 44 Council Representatives lobbied for over many months. The adopted resolution has an interesting history that demonstrated the importance of having Division 44 representatives on Council. In 2005 Council was considering a resolution that opposed discrimination on the basis of one’s religion and was about to vote to adopt the resolution. The three 44 Representatives, which then included Doug Haldeman, Kris Hancock, and Armand Cerbone, recognized that the resolution omitted the fact that often religion historically has been used to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion itself. They rose to the floor to prevent the vote and had the motion referred to the original committee to redraft the resolution. Over the next years a subcommittee was formed and collaborated intensively to produce the present resolution. Division 44 appointed Linda Garnets and John Gonsiorek to represent the Division on the subcommittee.

This item was of considerable concern among some board and committee members in APA governance who felt that discrimination against religion and religious-derived prejudice should be separated into two resolutions. The 44 Council Reps were concerned that, if the resolution were split in two, those members of Council who were uncomfortable with having APA identify for the first time religious beliefs or religious individuals as possible sources of discrimination could vote to accept the first part of the resolution that opposed discrimination on the basis of religion,and reject the second which opposed religion-based or religion-derived prejudice. APA held special meetings during the Spring meeting of all boards and committees to provide forums for discussion of the proposed resolution. The Council Reps were able to convince other members of governance of the importance of keeping the resolution in tact as it had been drafted.

Another important argument of the resolution acknowledges the differences between the epistemologies of science and faith. This principle is extremely important in countering many of the faith-based arguments for conversion therapy, for instance. As a scientific and professional organization, the APA respects the faith and beliefs of persons but adheres to the principles of science and empirical investigation as the foundation for policy in this association.

Division 44 and the Council Representatives would like to offer special thanks to Linda Garnets and former 44 President John Gonsiorek for their exceptional work in crafting the language and the arguments of this powerful document.

National Ethnic Psychology Associations

In another move of historic proportions, Council created four new seats, one for each of the four ethnic psychology associations: American Association of Asian Psychologists, Association of Black Psychologists, National Latino/a Psychologists Association, and the Society of Indian Psychologists. These seats were to have been be filled by a member elected by each association. As members of APA, these psychologists will enjoy all the rights and privileges of APA membership. Three representatives of each association rose to thank Council for helping them achieve what they have not been able to achieve before: the creation of a common forum through which the four associations can communicate with one another.

The Association of Black Psychologists declined to accept the seat and to participate in APA governance at this time. It was understood by all that more time will be necessary to heal historical wounds experienced as a result of APA’s having been an unwelcoming place for black psychologists.

To the surprise of many on Council, this by-laws change did not receive the support of 2/3 of the voting members of APA. Council will be meeting in February and discussing how to more effectively educate the membership and get out the vote on this very important change to our organization.

Diversity Training for APA Governance Members

Council voted to commit time from its February 2008 meetings to LGBT issues. This continues the diversity training begun several years ago at the request of the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest and the Committee on the Structure and Function of Council. All boards, committees and divisions have been encouraged to institute diversity training on a regular basis. There have been several sessions on racial and ethnic diversity in Council to date.

Task Force on Council Representation

Council established a task force to review the apportionment of divisions and states on Council. Over the past years the apportionment process of electing representatives to Council has resulted in the increase of division seats on Council. Divisions have proliferated and APA members have assigned more votes to divisions, which represent areas of professional and scholarly interest, than to their states, provinces and territories (SPT’s), which represent primarily practice concerns, like licensing and prescriptive authority. As a result, the SPT’s have been losing seats, creating a significant imbalance of SPT’s to divisions. The effect has been to reduce the political influence of the SPT’s in Council. The task force is charged with correcting this imbalance.

The implications for Division 44 are significant. If the task force recommends that the number of seats for divisions be reduced and Council adopts them, Division 44 and other public interest divisions could lose many seats on Council. This could profoundly affect the ability of Division 44 to lobby effectively and to pass or defeat policies affecting LGBT psychologists and persons.

Change in Council Representation

This August meeting of Council marked the final session during which Kris Hancock and Armand Cerbone represented Division 44. They served for six consecutive years during which they have successfully lobbied for LGBT interests. They were active in Council as well, serving on the boards and executive committees of some of the most important caucuses in Council where the future of many APA policies are decided. In so doing, they created both visibility and credibility for LGBT issues. Armand joins, the APA Board of Directors in January 2008, making this the first time in APA’s history in which two openly gay men have served on the Board.

The retiring reps thank the Division’s members and Executive Committee for their trust and support over the years and want to express thei confidence in the new team now representing the Division. Robin Buhrke is already taking a leadership role in Council. Joining Robin are Sari Dworkin and Terry Gock, both veteran leaders in Council. Together, they form a formidable team to insure the future of our issues in Council and APA.

On behalf of the Division and the Executive Committee, Robin would like to thank Kris and Armand for their diligent, passionate, and tireless work on the Division’s behalf. We have been well represented and our issues have been advanced because of their work. LGBT issues have never before been so well addressed and respected within the APA. They will have left their fingerprints on APA policy on LGBT issues for years to come. We are all grateful for your leadership. Thank you.

What You Can Do

To maintain our three seats on Council we need every member to allocate all of her/his votes to Division 44 when s/he receives her/his allocation ballot from APA in the Fall. Each APA member gets 10 votes - give all 10 to Division 44, which is the only voice representing LGBT issues on the floor of the "congress" of the APA.

See also