A Woman to Know: Evelyn Hooker
They are both men and women for whom my little bit of work, and my caring enough to do it, has made an enormous difference in their lives. — Evelyn Hooker
(image via UC-Davis)
Evelyn Hooker's research disproved the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness. This quote says it all:
What means most to me, I think, is… um, excuse me while I cry… If I went to a gathering of some kind, gay gathering of some kind, I was sure to have at least one person come up to me and say, “I’ve wanted to meet you because I wanted to tell you what you saved me from.” I’m thinking of a woman, a young woman, who came up to me in a meeting and said that her parents put, when they discovered that she was a lesbian, put her in a psychiatric hospital and that the standard procedure in that hospital was electroshock, but that her psychiatrist was familiar with my work and he was able to keep them from giving it to her, with tears streaming down her face.
Add to your library list:
Reflections of a 40-Year Exploration: A Scientific View on Homosexuality (Evelyn Hooker)
Making Gay History (Eric Marcus)
Read more:
The Gay Revolution (The New York Times)
Dr. Evelyn Hooker (University of California-Davis)
The myth buster (American Psychological Association)
Being Gay is Just As Healthy as Being Straight (American Psychological Association)
Psychologist Evelyn Hooker dies (The Washington Post)
It didn't start with Stonewall (The American Prospect)
Hear more:
Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker (Richard Smiechen)
Dr. Evelyn Hooker (Making Gay History)
** Send your own recommendations for women to know! Reply to this newsletter with your lady and she could be featured in an upcoming edition. You can browse the archive here. **