Editor
Bonnie Jacobs, PhD, ABPP

Since the last newsletter the LAGPA Board has been very busy organizing, running and planning future events (see calendar of events this issue). The annual holiday party, held at the home of Stuart Altschuler, was a success. I would like to thank Stuart for his ongoing involvement and support of LAGPA. Our educational seminar on bullying and conflict resolution training for children, presented by Drs. Holly Pedersen and Victoria Simon, was extremely enlightening (see article this issue). Our next seminar on February 6, 2004 will be presented by Dr. Jim Green. We will soon be presenting our annual community service awards and holding our annual conference.

We continue to update our data base and clean up the errors we have found. If you have not been receiving email or snail mail, please let us know and bear with us while we revamp. Now that we have an almost full board (we still need two more women where are you?), all committees are catching up and moving forward. If you have a new address, phone number or email address please forward it to Jim Michael; we cannot successfully get information to you without your current addresses.

As a result of current and ongoing events regarding same sex marriage and family issues, the theme for this years annual conference (on June 19th at the Hotel Sofitel) will be Our GLBT Families: Moving Forward. This past year has seen a number of steps forward for our community and our civil rights, as well as a few steps backward. While a number of states have affirmed our rights, others are trying to limit or block them. George W. may consider introducing a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman, but amendments to the constitution are not that easy to pass. While state and federal governments legislate, we, as psychotherapists, need to deal with the issues in public and private settings. In public we need to make our voices heard and lobby for our rights as GLBT people. We are in a position to inform and educate as well as correct misconceptions using research and experience as foundations for our statements. We are also in a position to help those affected by the laws and personal issues that arise from living in our society. We will be presenting a domestic violence module at the annual conference to cover DV issues in the community and to meet the new CEU requirements for psychologists and this years renewing MFTs and LCSWs. Other lectures will also be offered and we are calling for papers in this issue of the newsletter. Please consider a topic on the conference theme and submit your proposals as soon as possible.

In the future, we are hoping to present longer continuing education workshops on topics relevant not only to the GLBT community, but which will help the membership meet CEU requirements at a reasonable cost. A list of the new requirements for each license appears in this issue. If you are able to conduct a workshop on one of the required topics please email the program committee chairperson. LAGPA is trying to become a new and better organization for its members, the clients we serve and the community in which we live. To do this the membership needs to become more involved by participating on committees, paying dues, attending events, presenting CEU seminars and presenting at the annual conference. In the past, a few people have attempted to carry the whole organization. While those people did a great job with the resources at their disposal, the organization could not be as effective as it may have had there been greater member participation. The more people who volunteer to help with running the organization, the better the organization works and the more we can do. A list of the committee chairs/board members and their email addresses appears in this issue. Send one of them an email to ask what you can do to help. With your help we can have an organization we can all be proud of.