2018 Candidate Statement: Armand Cerbone

I am asking again for endorsement for my candidacy for the office of the 2019 APA President-elect from the Society for the Psychology of Women (Division 35).  I say “again” because when I last appeared on this slate in 2010, both the Women’s Caucus and Division 35 that year ranked me #1 over the only woman on the slate because I represented the values of feminism best and had a record to support it.  And it has been women, including several past presidents of APA, who first and repeatedly encouraged me to run for president.

I make this request with full knowledge and appreciation of the importance of the Society’s mission to advance the psychology of women and women in psychology.  I support that mission today as I have in the past and will tomorrow.

At the same time I am asking the caucus to appreciate that feminism does not come only in a woman’s form.  I believe that I embody those values and express them in action.  I will explain how and why. 

Early Interventions for gender parity

·      In my first postgraduate position at the Counseling Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago, 1973-76, my response as a psychologist to the women’s movement was to stage groups for women and men to dialogue about the inequities and grievances of gender disparity, about women’s oppression and rights, and about relationships with men based on equality.  They were painful for many, liberating for some, and helpful to all participants.

·      When I introduced the first course on homosexuality to the curriculum of the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in 1983, a lesbian student confronted me about my competence to represent the lesbian experience.  I agreed with her that I couldn’t.   After a brief search and negotiating with the faculty dean, I was able to secure permission to have her as my teaching assistant but without a TA’s salary.  To correct that, to present a model of gender parity, and to establish her professional credibility equal to mine, I divided my salary for the course and paid her from my own pocket.

Personal Interventions for Abused Women

I debated within myself whether to disclose the following experiences in this context.  However, I want you to know the extent to which I have gone to defend women.  I hope I would respond this way again and that I would do so regardless of the race or gender of the victim.

·      As a young psychologist living with my first partner in our new home, I responded to a woman’s screams behind my home.  Pushing past a small group of men and neighbors standing by and staring in the direction of the screams, I pulled a man off the woman he was sexually assaulting at knifepoint.  She was a Latina being attacked by her estranged husband.

·      In 1984 returning from a night at the opera, I heard my Latina neighbor screaming.  I called the police immediately.  I tried in vain to stop the beating I could hear she was getting from her estranged husband.  The police arrived after my second call.  In the morning I learned she had succumbed to the beating.  I testified in court at his trial.

Illustrative Interventions and as a Psychologist

·      My activism for LGBT welfare in has been as much to advance the causes of lesbians as much as for men.  The recognitions of my achievements in those pursuits were not for me as a White male only.  I saw my efforts to be as much for lesbians and bisexuals, for those with intersecting identities, and for those young persons on the frontiers of redefining what it means to be a sexual being and what gender really means.  It was incumbent upon me to advocate for people who did not enjoy my privileges.

·      I have long recognized the need for a firmer, more empathic grasp of the experience of women in a world dominated by men.  For instance, when a newly installed male APA president threatened to crash the Women’s Caucus on the grounds that it committed the sin it condemned by excluding men on the basis of gender alone, Melba Vasquez, Norman Anderson, and I reasoned, argued and finally dissuaded him from his plan.  Yet, the experience convinced me of the need for a women-only meeting, despite the exclusion.

·      In 1976 I appeared briefly on the Phil Donahue Show as a representative of the National Men’s Movement in Chicago, addressing parity and equality between the sexes.

·      I attended annually the Women in Leadership in Psychology convention breakfast to show my support but to learn more about the experience of women in psychology.

·      I have mentored women, lesbian, transgender students and ECPs throughout my career.

·      I have been interviewed on Focus on the Family, the Bill O’Reilly Factor, and several national and local media news outlets on human sexuality and gender.

Together these instances evidence how I have integrated and implemented feminist values over many decades.  Each has been informed with a commitment to justice, equality, and safety for all women.

Illustrative Achievements in the pursuit of justice and equality

·      Co-authored with Kris Hancock, Christine Browning, and Doug Haldeman the APA Professional Practice Guidelines for Psychotherapy with LGB Clients, 1^st and 2^nd revisions.

·      Chaired the Working Group that developed Resolutions on Same-sex Families and Relationships adopted as policy in 2004.  The resolution argued that the only reason to deny same-sex partners and families access to the benefits of marriage was discrimination.  The resolutions became part of the APA amicus brief that the California Supreme Court cited when it struck down the ban against same-sex marriage.  U.S. Justice Stevens in his majority opinion cited the data in the amicus brief in recognizing the right of all people to love and marry regardless of gender.

Statement of Values

Who holds power changes.  That is a lesson we can take from history.

I believe that it is the responsibility of those holding power (whoever they are, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability or disability) to use that power to the benefit of ALL, not just to the benefits of those who are made in the image of dominant power-holders and to those willing to support retention of power by the dominant power group.  It is my responsibility as a White male and ally to advocate for the rights and safety of all women.

I know what is to have the value of my gender questioned and my equality as a man demeaned.  It is that experience that has informed my efforts to pursue parity among all genders.  I have witnessed violence against women and intervened to stop it.  It is those experiences that have compelled me to intervene when and to the extent I could.  I believe, as Bev Greene has taught me, that women can never know for sure what they will activate in the presence of men or what, as women of color, they will activate in the presence of men.  It is that awareness that has sensitized me to the realities of a woman’s world.

Final Points to Consider: Looking Forward

·      Women now outnumber men in psychology and still women do not have equity with men.

·      Demographically, the gender balance in psychology has shifted in favor of women and will become even more so (75% of new students are women.).  It is not too soon for women in psychology to consider how that reality will impact how women view the future of psychology and their agenda.  I am invested in learning about and supporting what that vision might be.

·      I believe sisterhood is powerful.  I have seen that proven time and again.  I see it in APA in the way women are pressing for APA to be fair to all, to be more inclusive of all psychologists, and to push APA to do more for ALL its members.  Women don’t need men to help or support.  So I have stood by to support, when sought, rather than presume you needed the help of a male.  And yet, I also believe that as important it is to value allies, it is equally important to use them. (I have had to learn the importance of allies in pressing for LGBT rights.) I have argued this in the open sessions of the Women’s Caucus of Council.  I stand by that principle today and will tomorrow.  The struggle goes on.

·      I believe that our paradigms of gender and human sexuality are changing (and have so argued for many years now in articles and papers).  Human rights activists and psychological research are corroborating the shift.  Power balances are shifting with the shift in paradigms.  We need paradigms that embrace all of human experience not just those of the majority I believe that the values and missions of Division 35 and the Women’s Caucus are in the forefront of that paradigm change in psychology.  I want to do what is in my power and purview to further those missions.

As in the past, I have stood with and for women; I stand with you today and will tomorrow.  I have written at length here not only to let you know in what manner I have met the mission and values of the Society but more to let you know what manner of man I am.

I ask for your trust and your endorsement of my candidacy for President-elect.