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A Short History of the Task Force
The late Catherine
Acuff, Ph.D., was a psychologist who influenced many lives. She was a
clinician, teacher, mentor, administrator, and advocate. She was a Fellow and President
(1987-1988) of the Connecticut Psychological Association (CPA) who
distinguished herself as a strident advocate for psychology and social justice,
especially as a dedicated activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
issues within psychology. She held many governance positions within CPA and the
American Psychological Association (APA).
It was during her CPA presidential tenure that the organization held its
first annual convention at the Summit Hotel in Hartford, and the first Annual Retreat was
held under her leadership. Furthermore,
she hired the CPA’s first Executive Director and established a Central
Office.
Most pertinent to our present efforts, over
15 years ago Dr. Acuff convened and chaired, along with Tim Wallace, Ph.D., the
first-ever CPA Gay & Lesbian Task Force. When Dr. Acuff was nearly
50 years old she moved to Washington,
DC to extend her career into the
public policy arena. The CPA Gay & Lesbian Task Force lost steam without
her presence and lay dormant for many years.
Nevertheless, Dr. Acuff continued her advocacy efforts for sexual and
gender minorities on a nationwide scale. Among other accomplishments, Dr. Acuff
helped create APA’s Treatment Guidelines for Working with Gay, Lesbian, and
Bisexual Clients. She died unexpectedly on April 21, 2000 at the age of 51
following a sudden illness, which represented a huge loss for both CPA and APA.
Richard Stillson,
Ph.D., re-started the Task Force in 2004 in order to continue Dr. Acuff’s
legacy, and renamed it the CPA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transgender
Task Force in order to reflect an updated acknowledgement of the diversity
of sexualities/gender. Our mission, then as now, is to continue to educate
psychologists and the general public about issues affecting individuals who are
in the sexuality/gender minority. The Task Force has recently encountered some
success on a few issues as outlined below.
Under Dr. Stillson’s leadership, the Task Force has continued
to work on securing same-sex marriage rights in the state of Connecticut. Task Force lobbying efforts
have helped block “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) legislation within the state
and assisted in the recent passage of Civil Union legislation for same-sex
partners.
The Task Force also developed a 28-item survey which will
lead to a Queer-affirming directory of therapists. This state-wide directory
has already been completed by over 120 providers. In addition, it will guide
our educational efforts as a Task Force. Results indicate that service
providers report the leading issue is learning about Coming Out. In order to
address this educational shortcoming, Task Force members (Drs. Stillson &
McCloskey) presented a workshop proposal for the 2007 Fall CPA convention on Coming Out Issues. They also presented
on treatment issues in working with GLBT people at the 2005 CPA convention.
The Task Force continues to co-sponsor other educational
efforts of and for our community. In partnership with True Colors, a
region-wide three-day Queer youth conference was held on March 21-23rd,
2008. We helped to fund this event and had a presence throughout the
conference. We also are co-sponsoring a Transgender Health and Legal conference
later in Spring of 2008. The Task Force
also continues to encourage queer graduate students in their dissertation work
on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender research through the CPA Catherine
Acuff Award generously endowed by Dr.
Debora Kustron, and we continue to examine other ways in which to develop relevant
research projects.
In April of 2008, Dr. Stillson stepped down as the sole
Chair of the Task Force. Although CPA
by-laws require an individual as officially designated “chair” for all
committees and task forces (Kathy McCloskey), in actuality we function with five
rotating Co-Chairs equal in organizational power/status: Christopher Bory, Trevor Floyd, Bekah Jackson, Kathy McCloskey, and
Richard Stillson. This new Task
Force administration has changed its name to the CPA Task Force on Sexuality and Gender Diversity in order to be
even more inclusive in its mission and language, has developed a new updated
website, and is strongly involved in activism, advocacy, and education
concerning sexuality and gender diversity.
Please join us by becoming a member!
(Note:
This historical account was compiled on April 8, 2008 from information obtained
from CPA’s official website, an interview from Dr. Debora Kustron, and
information obtained from Dr. Richard Stillson, recent past sole Chair of the
Task Force)
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