from Social Issues

Stevenson attended the 2005 National Multicultural Conference and Summit in January in Hollywood, California. The subtitle of the conference was "The Psychology of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Disability: What Works, With Whom and Under What Circumstances."

One of the workshops was conducted by Regent University Professor Mark Yarhouse, and two doctoral candidates: Heather Brook and Ediza Garcia. The title of their workshop was "Sexual Minorities: Clinical Considerations for the Coming Out Process."

In his editorial on the summit, Stevenson noted: "Despite our best efforts, a 'critical incident' cast such an emotional pall over the meeting that it requires some further discussion." The "critical incident" was the Regent University workshop. According to Stevenson, "Under the guise of offering a 'diversity' of view points, the students described a model of coming out that is inconsistent with the scientific literature that constitutes LGBT psychology, as it equated forms of reparative therapy and 'Homosexuals Anonymous' with gay affirming approaches to therapy."

According to Stevenson, this kind of workshop must not be permitted in the future. "We must do what is appropriate and necessary to prevent such incidents in the future as it is our responsibility to prevent the suffering of our LGBT brothers and sisters when we can."