GASP, the GLBT Alliance in Social and Personality Psychology, is a nonprofit organization that provides support and professional information to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students and faculty in social and personality psychology and their supportive heterosexual colleagues. GASP is open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or research interest.

          GASP's goals are to work with the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, its members, its committees, and other groups and individuals to improve the climate for LGBT students and faculty in our field. Currently, GASP has the support of the current SPSP president, Ed Diener, the SPSP Training Committee, the SPSP Diversity Committee, and the SPSP Graduate Student Committee, as well as numerous members of the organization (see list below).

          While many members of SPSP have long been supportive of LGBT issues on an individual level, this is not always reflected on an institutional level. For example, SPSP lacks a formal nondiscrimination policy and does not include sexual orientation in its list of diversity programs, including scholarship and mentorship programs. Research on LGBT issues, too, requires greater organizational support from SPSP. Just as LGBT individuals have historically faced discrimination and invisibility within mainstream psychology, so too has empirical research on LGBT topics. This could be effectively remedied by programs facilitating intellectual exchange between researchers and teachers about LGBT issues, yet no such programs exist.

          GASP is willing to spearhead efforts to implement many of these changes. However, it will be most effective in achieving these goals through an active and visible partnership with SPSP and its leadership. We therefore ask that the SPSP Executive Committee....

               1) Affirm its support of LGBT members of our field,

               2) Adopt and publicize a formal nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation,

               3) Support GASP in its efforts to provide support and professional information to LGBT members of our field, as well as to provide information on LGBT issues to all members of our field, and

               4) Affirm its support for research on LGBT issues, given the central importance to our field of such LGBT-related topics as close relationships, interpersonal attraction, attitudes, self and identity, stereotyping, prejudice, stigma, gender, disclosure and health.

          Support by SPSP could take many forms, ranging from a simple affirmation of the points above, to formal affiliation, to financial support from the organization and its committees. Regardless of how this support is specifically manifested, we believe that it will have an immediate impact on both LGBT psychologists and LGBT-related research by reducing stigmatization, isolation, and attrition in our field. We also believe that formal support of GASP would further SPSP's stated goals of increasing diversity in research, teaching, and advising within social and personality psychology.
We therefore ask the Executive Committee to support this request for endorsement.

                       Sincerely,

                              Lisa G. Aspinwall                Lisa M. Diamond
                              GASP Co-Founder            GASP Co-Founder

and the following student and faculty members of SPSP: