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from Ethical Issues
Gay Activist Serves As Current Head of American Counseling Association
In October, 2003, Mark Pope was elected as president of the American Counseling
Association (ACA), a professional organization with more than 50,000 counselors
and therapists in the U.S. As the first openly gay president of the ACA, he has
worked to advance gay and lesbian interests in the mental health profession.
Pope, who currently works as a professor in the Division of Counseling & Family
Therapy at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, is also a member of Division
44 of the American Psychiatric Association and member of the Section for
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Awareness in Division 17 of the American
Psychological Association.
In accepting his election as ACA president through the end of 2004, Pope noted:
"By a vote of the Board of directors of the American Psychiatric Association in
1973, we [gays] were removed from their 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders.' They waved their magic wand and we were made 'sane'
overnight. Do you understand the power that we, as mental health professionals,
have to affect people's lives? We who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual were
adjudged mentally ill because of the prejudices of the dominant culture. We who
are in the mental health professions have responsibility for that. That is why
my election to lead one of the largest mental health organizations in the world
is so important. As the first openly gay man elected to such a position, I
represent a final and total repudiation of that past."
In an interview in The Advocate magazine (12/9/2003), Pope observed that "When
the health profession labeled gays and lesbians as sick, it was based on
religious and political prejudices, not on data. There were no legitimate
studies that made the case for homosexuality as a mental illness, and that's
even clearer today."
When discussing reparative therapy with counselors, Pope says: "I explain the
research and the policies the association has adopted. I explain that there is
no evidence that conversion and reparative therapies work and that even if they
did, what kind of message do they sent to young people?"
Pope also noted: "I come from the Native American background of two-spirited
people, which allows us to go against the dominant sexual orientation and gender
roles of the majority. That's something the rest of the culture needs to work
toward."
He is author of "Crashing through the 'lavender ceiling,' in the leadership of
the counseling profession," published in Deconstructing Heterosexism, by Sage
Publications.
Updated: 8 February 2008
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