Pioneering Social Work Dean Took on Anti-Gay Foster Care Policy
Diana Waldfogel was the dean of Simmons School of Social Work and President of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in the 1980’s. When the Dukakis administration put into place a discriminatory anti-gay foster care policy, NASW Executive Director Carol Brill took on both Health and Human Services Secretary Phil Johnston - who likes to describe himself as a social worker - and Governor Dukakis - whom NASW and the social work community had helped to get into office through our work at the community level. NASW - MA had established a GLB (at the time) issues committee which is the longest existing group of its type in our 56 chapters.
Dean Waldfogel, who was nothing if not a lady, took to this issue as an issue of fairness and social justice and brought a reluctant board along with her way of thinking. This is still very much remembered by so many of us as a watershed moment. In December, 1973 the American Psychiatric Association had voted to declassify homosexuality, which it had listed as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since the first edition was issued in 1952. So this was a very important action for this dean to take from this school which is the oldest clinical program in the US.
Her death a couple of weeks ago has had me remembering her pioneering spirit - and this important footnote to an historic moment in GLAD’s history as well.
Learn more about GLAD’s work to secure the right of gay men and lesbians to be foster parents in this month’s audio podcast and case of the month: The Best Interest of Children: Babets v. Johnston
GLAD supporter Gary Baily is Associate Professor of Social Work at Simmons and a past President of both the national NASW and the Massachusetts chapter