Homophobia

Abstract

Abstract The panelists participating in this public forum of the American Psychoanalytic Association discuss homophobia as a permissible prejudice from a variety of perspectives. Leon Hoffman, chair of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Committee on Public Information begins the meeting. Alan G. Hevesi, comptroller of the City of New York, presents the harmful political and socially undesirable costs of homophobia. Paul Lynch, M.D., describes the personal experience of being a gay psychoanalytic candidate in an institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association. The Reverend Peter J. Gomes criticizes religious condoning of homophobia. Nancy J. Chodorow, Ph.D., provides a psychoanalytic perspective to understand homophobia. Ralph E. Roughton, M.D., focuses on institutionalized homophobia and its effects, specifically the history of antihomosexual prejudice in the theory, policies and practice of the American Psychoanalytic Association and a brief description of the changes in that organization in the 1990s. A statement is read from Congressman Barney Frank on the subject of homophobia. The forum concludes with questions from members of the audience in attendance while the panel is joined by Susan Vaughan, M.D.