2008 APS conference
To be held in Hobart, this year's APS Conference will include a GLIP symposium that focuses on parenting, body image issues, and HIV prevention. Conference attendees can make use of PD point opportunities and may also attend the GLIP AGM and the GLIP drinks, both of which will be held, along with the symposium, on Wednesday, 24 September 2008. More details, including the full programme and registration information at the APS Conference website.
PD points opportunity
GLIP is now offering PD points in the form of journal article reading. In our bimonthly newsletter emailed to members, we provide details of a current research paper that focuses on an important issue to LGBT people. A summary of the paper is provided and members are invited to read the paper and apply for PD points accordingly - 1 point per hour of reading.
Borrow Video - "Changing our minds: The story of Dr Evelyn Hooker"
GLIP members (only) can borrow free of charge the video documentary - Changing our minds: The story of Dr Evelyn Hooker. The only cost involved will be in posting back to National Office in Melbourne once you have finished watching it.
If you watch with other psychologists and discuss afterwards, you may use towards College Professional Development Points. Check with your relevant College's criteria first.
To organise borrowing, please contact Catherine Pasula at the APS on (03) 8662 3300 or c.pasula@psychology.org.au.
NOTE - we only have one copy to circulate.
Past news
Report on the Seventh Symposium - APS/NZPsS Conference - Auckland - 2006
The Gay and Lesbian Interest Group (GLIP) recently hosted its Seventh Symposium at the Joint Conference of the Australian Psychological Society and the New Zealand Psychological Society in Auckland, New Zealand. The theme was ‘Practice, public health and parenting: gay and lesbian issues in psychology'. The intention of the symposium was to explore the limits that are placed upon people who identify as gay and lesbian when our experiences are located within traditional heterosexual binaries of gender and sexuality. In this way all of the papers presented a challenge to the normative practices that surround the concepts of identity, self and indeed what it means to be ‘same-sex attracted’.
The symposium commenced with an acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land upon which the conference was convened. It was also recognised that several of the presenters came from Australia, and thus acknowledgment was made of the traditional owners of the land upon which they live, particularly the land of the people of the Kulin Nations and the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains.
The symposium began with a paper by David Semp, who presented his research on MSM clients of PMHS in New Zealand. David suggested that a discursive approach to understanding the needs of such clients may help to combat assumptions made by both queer and heterosexual practitioners - assumptions that may often present a failure to provide adequate services to queer/MSM clients. The second paper, presented by Warwick Arblaster, focused on the role of the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce in the Australian Federal Police. Warwick outlined the important role that the taskforce plays in both challenging heterosexism and educating those providing services to queer people. Finally, Damien Riggs provided an examination of some of the subtle (and at times not so subtle) ways in which heterosexism is played out in research on attachment theory and foster care. Damien explored the implications of this examination for lesbian and gay foster carers.
As a whole, the symposium presented a broad range of research that was informative, interesting and accessible. Together the papers drew on an expansive array of approaches to the study of gay and lesbian psychology, which demonstrated the need for a continued focus on the very radical differences that shape same-sex attracted individuals’ experiences. Rather than attempting to circumscribe research in the area by positing a very narrow set of theoretical and methodological models, the symposium illustrated the importance of diversity and eclecticism in order to challenge heteronormative practices.
In conclusion, the symposium appeared to be both well attended and well received. The papers generated a lot of lively discussion, and all of the presenters engaged with questions that allowed them to extend upon their presentations.
In addition to the symposium, the GLIP drinks were, as always, a great success. Organised by Damien Riggs and the APS Crew, the drinks were held this year at Bar3 in Sky City, Auckland. The event was well attended and provided an excellent opportunity for further networking and socialising.
We look forward to convening our eighth symposium at the APS conference in Brisbane in 2007.
