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Committee on the Status of LGBTQIA+ Persons in Sociology

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The Committee on the Status of LGBTQIA+ Persons in Sociology shall monitor the participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ persons in the discipline and the affairs of the Association. The committee shall report to Council the status and concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons within the western region.

The term of office for each committee member shall be three conferences/two years; each year two members start and two members end their term in office. While members of the Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Persons may recommend prospective members to the Committee on Committees, they do not select their own members. They do, however, elect the committee’s chair. The chair of the Committee is elected by committee members from among their ranks and must be someone who will be a continuing and active member of the committee for at least one year. The chair will serve for one year and may be reelected. The chair is elected at the scheduled meeting of the committee, which is held during the annual PSA meeting.

  1. Procedures (majority vote, subcommittee decisions, etc.) for taking action.
    Currently, major decisions are determined at the annual meeting by a majority vote. However, since the purpose of the Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Persons is to monitor the participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons in the discipline, a recognized minority, the Committee does recognize that a vote of the majority can have the effect of limiting the power of those in the minority, especially when those affected by the decision are members of a minority within this minority group. Therefore, it will be recommended that when a vote of the majority has the effect on a subgroup that is in the minority, a method of appealing the decision will be established and procedures for reviewing the appeal established
  2. Subcommittees.  Subcommittees are appointed on an as needed basis, if at all. The procedures for taking action on the recommendations of subcommittees depends on the authority given to the subcommittee at the time that it is appointed. In general, it is expected that the subcommittees of the Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Persons would report back to the full committee and Chair. At that time, the full committee would vote on the action.
  3. Decisions throughout the year.  When a decision needs to be made during the year, the members of the Committee will contact the Chair who is expected to contact all committee members via email and with a request that they review the issue in question. The Chair shall set a time period for a response depending on the nature of the issue or concern. Unless time is of the essence, the Chair shall allow for a minimum period of two weeks for Committee members to respond to the request. If it is a matter of voting on an item, the Chair will tally the results and send the results back to the members of the Committee informing them of the results allowing them a minimum of five working days to respond to the results. If time is of the essence, the Chair will take appropriate action to either act or communicate with the members within the more limited time frame. At all times, it is expected that the Chair will inform the members of the Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Persons of action taken without their knowledge and provide an explanation as to why the action was taken without communicating with the Committee members, prior to taking the action. Decisions taken without the consent of the members shall be reversible if the majority of members decide that such action was not in the best interest of the Committee.
  4. Duties of the Chair.
    • Establish an Agenda for the Annual Meeting in consultation with the full membership.
    • Establish, in consultation with Committee Members, a list of sessions the Committee will sponsor at the Annual Meetings.
    • Communicate with the Membership of the Committee, at least once every 60 days, to provide them with a summary of issues and actions that need to be addressed and to request members to send in comments or proposals on items that should be presented to the full Committee.
    • Maintain and update the committee’s files, records, and archives.
    • Solicit ideas from the Committee on future action that the Committee should consider.
    • Work with members of the Committee to establish methods by which Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,Transgender, and Queer+ Sociologists may communicate their concerns and issues.
  5. Calendar and committee activities.
    • Establishing an agenda.  Ninety days prior to the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, the Chair will send the members of the Committee a request for agenda items to be discussed at the Annual Meeting. Sixty days prior to the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, a draft of the agenda shall be sent to all new and old members of the Committee. Upon receipt the members of the Committee shall have 30 days to review and comment upon the agenda. Thirty days prior to the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, the Chair shall send each Member of the Committee, a finalized agenda and any supplementary information that needs to be reviewed prior to the meetings. At the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, the Chair shall allow Committee Members to add to the agenda items that were not able to be suggested prior to the meetings. However, it will be up to the Members of the full committee to decide if such items shall be added to the agenda without having the time to review the issues that must be discussed.
    • Passing on action items to the PSA Council.
    • Selecting the next chair or chair-elect.
    • Meeting as a committee.
    • Nominating Members for next year’s committee.  Names of potential new members of the committee shall be passed on to the Chair of the Committee on Committees well before appointments are made by the Committee on Committees (usually September).
    • Writing the annual Minutes/report  The report is brief, describing the activities and decisions of the committee the previous year. The report should be sent to the Secretary by May 1, and must include information on any sessions the committee wants to sponsor that should be included in the Open Call.
    • Passing on the archive of the committee.  It shall be the responsibility of the Chair of the Committee  to pass on the archive of the Committee. This archive shall include all written communications between Committee members during the Chair’s term, including any documents that were created electronically.
  6. Procedures for soliciting input (agenda or action items, participation, member nominations, etc.) from committee members between meeting dates.
    • Establishing an agenda.  See above.
    • Decisions throughout the year.  See above

2023-2024 Committee Members
Jordan Grasso (24) UC Irvine (Graduate student)
Chris Wakefield (24) University of Nevada Las Vegas
John Stover (25) Santa Rosa Community College
Amanda Shigihara (25) CSU Sacramento

2022-2023 Committee Members
Elizabeth Bennett (23) Central New Mexico Community College
Katja Guenther (23) UC Riverside
Jordan Grasso (24) UC Irvine (Graduate student)
Chris Wakefield (24) University of Nevada Las Vegas  Chair

2021-2022 Committee Members
Paul Morgan (22) CSU Stanislaus
Elizabeth Bennett (23) Central New Mexico Community College Chair
Katja Guenther (23) UC Riverside

2020-2021 Committee Members
Dana Nakano (21) CSU Stanislaus
Rocio Garcia (21) UCLA
Paul Morgan (22) CSU Stanislaus

2019-2020 Committee Members
Sean Davis (19–extended) Mira Costa College, Chair
Ann Travers (20) Simon Fraser University
Janae Teal (20) Humboldt County DHHS
Dana Nakano (21) CSU Stanislaus
Rocio Garcia (21) UCLA

2018-19 Committee Members
Griff Tester (19) Central Washington University
Sean Davis (19) Mira Costa College, Co-Chair
Ann Travers (20) Simon Fraser University
Janae Teal (20) Humboldt County DHHS

2017-18 Committee Members
Don Barrett (18) CSU San Marcos, Co-Chair
JayeCee Whitehead (18) Pacific University
Lora Stone (18) University of New Mexico Gallup
Meredith Williams (18) Humboldt State University
 Griff Tester (19) Central Washington University
Sean Davis (19) Mira Costa College, Co-Chair
to begin service in 2018:
Ann Travers (20) Simon Fraser University
Janae Teal (20) Humboldt County DHHS

2016-17 Committee Members
Vivian Varela (16 extended to 17) Mendocino College, Chair
Don Barrett (18) CSU San Marcos
JayeCee Whitehead (18) Pacific University
Lora Stone (18) University of New Mexico Gallup
Meredith Williams (18) Humboldt State University
to begin service in 2017: 
Griff Tester (19) Central Washington University
Sean Davis (19) Mira Costa College

2015-16 Committee Members
Vivian Varela (16) Mendocino College, Chair
Maura Kelly (16) Portland State University

2014-15 Committee Members
Liahna Gordon  California State University, Chico (Central) Co-Chair
Karl Bryant  SUNY New Paltz (Northern)
James Thing  University of Southern California (Southern)
Vivian Varela  Mendocino College (Central)
Molly Merryman  Kent State (Central) Co-Chair
Maura Kelly  Portland State University (Northern)