First-ever LGBT masters program debuts at LA university

Thanks to a revolutionary masters program, LGBT issues are reshaping the foundation of higher education at Antioch University Los Angeles.

The 17-unit emphasis is the country's first-ever LGBT specialization within a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology program. Offered this fall, the core curriculum features five course classes, including "LGBT History and Mythology" and "Issues for Gender Variant Clients." Workshops on bisexuality, lesbian liberation, addiction recovery, youth, aging, and ancient shamanism are also scheduled.

The specialization's director, Douglas Sadownick, hails the curriculum as an LGBT milestone on both a collective and an individual level.

"The program is devoted to bringing LGBT-affirmative theory and practice to students of psychology who want to strengthen their LGBT identities and in working towards social justice wish to help further gay and lesbian empowerment, dignity, self-esteem, and healing in their gay and lesbian clientele," says Sadownick.

Charley Lang, an accomplished Antioch instructor who will teach a course in "LGBT Affirmative Psychotherapy," highlights the need for such a program: "Feelings of marginalization and fear [among LGBT people] are not the result of personal failings. Such feelings are the gender system itself at work. I see Antioch's new program as a courageous and essential step in this response process."