Forty Years Since John Fryer: That Was Then, This Is Now

Abstract

The John E. Fryer, MD Award, an annual award given by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and sponsored by the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists (AGLP), honors an individual whose work has contributed to the mental health of sexual minorities. Dr. Fryer was the psychiatrist who appeared in a Nixon mask and fright wig as “Dr. H. Anonymous” at a 1972 APA presentation (Scasta, 2003; Barber, 2008) to talk about how the listing of homosexuality as a mental illness affected him and other gay psychiatrists. The talk was one factor in moving the organization to take homosexuality out of psychiatry's diagnostic manual the following year (Bayer, 1981).

The Fryer Award was endowed through a generous grant from the Gill Foundation, a bequest from the estate of psychiatrist Frank Rundle and longtime AGLP member, and contributions from AGLP members.

The first award in 2006 was given to Barbara Gittings and Franklin Kameny in New York City; other recipients include Past APA President Lawrence Hartman, psychiatrist and researcher Richard Pillard, and Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson. In 2011, the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson was the recipient of the award and gave the following lecture in Honolulu.

The Right Reverend V. G. Robinson was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, after having served as Assistant to the Bishop for nearly 18 years. Bishop Robinson, who married his partner in 2008, is the first openly gay, noncelibate priest to be ordained a Bishop in a major Christian denomination. In reaction to his election and its ratification, some conservative parishes aligned themselves with Bishops outside the Episcopal Church in the United States. Bishop Robinson had to wear a bulletproof vest at his consecration and has been under intense public scrutiny as a lightning rod for the church's and the public's conflicting views on homosexuality.

Bishop Robinson is a graduate of the University of the South, Sewanee Tennessee, and the General Theological Seminary in New York. He has been a tireless advocate for full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. His story is featured in the documentary For the Bible Tells Me So (Karslake, 2007), and he is the author of In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God (Robinson, 2008). Bishop Robinson has been honored by many LGBT organizations for his work, including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay & Lesbian Taskforce, and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. He was invited by President Barack Obama to give the invocation at the opening inaugural ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009.