Media Contact: Rick Moore, rmoore.rockway@alliant.edu or 415-314-8952.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 8, 2008

Green Keynotes Conference on LGBT Family Psychology

Robert-Jay Green, PhD, executive director of the Rockway Institute, will deliver the keynote presentation at Frontiers in Family Psychology, a conference on the emerging psychological and legal challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) partners in becoming a family. The day-long conference, held in Santa Barbara, California on Friday, September 19, 2008, is sponsored by Antioch University - Santa Barbara.

Green is a distinguished professor of psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University, in San Francisco. He is an internationally known expert on LGBT couples and families, with more than 70 publications and 30-plus years of clinical experience. As executive director of Rockway Institute, Green works to bring together scientific research and professional expertise to counter antigay prejudice and to inform public opinion about LGBT issues. Under Green’s leadership, the Rockway Institute also conducts policy-relevant psychological research on LGBT families.

In his keynote presentation, Green will discuss special stresses facing same-sex couples and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents and their children, as well as how communities and public policies can promote their mental health and general well-being.  Green also will discuss the psychological implications of the recent California Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples have the right to marry under the California Constitution.  “Research is showing that same-sex relationships, like heterosexual ones, are affected by legal status. States are finding various ways to recognize same-sex relationships, and that new status seems to affect how the couples feel about themselves, their relationship, and their place in society,” he said.

Other speakers will discuss body size prejudice among couples, child support issues, domestic partnership laws, gay and lesbian rights, adoption and pregnancy.

This is the first year that Antioch Santa Barbara’s psychology department has hosted a family psychology conference, which will feature workshops intended to bring together psychological and legal practitioners, researchers, supervisors, students and trainees with national leaders and scholars. Seven hours of continuing education credit are available.

Registration information can be obtained by telephoning 805-962-8179.