Last year, I saw an ad for LAGPA in the AMFT magazine which piqued my curiosity enough to investigate the organization and its purpose. Even though I live in San Diego, I became a member and attended last October's social at the Cobalt Cantina, in West Hollywood. Because of the pleasure I experienced in meeting colleagues who were gay and lesbian in such a comfortable social setting, I decided that a LAGPA chapter in San Diego would be a great idea.

With the support and guidance of the Board of Directors, the first San Diego LAGPA event took place on March 3, 2001. That Saturday evening, nine San Diego therapists attended an open house with a home-made Mexican buffet at my home in Chula Vista. Co-president Stuart Altschuler, MFT attended from Los Angeles to represent the LAGPA Board. He spoke to the guests regarding the organization, its' accomplishments and history, and about the advantages of membership. He also led a discussion about the advantages of creating a San Diego chapter and how to go about it.

It was decided that the next step for San Diego is to create a small organizing committee and sponsor our first academic forum, offering CEU's as a way of creating more visibility for LAGPA in this area.

There were forty gay and lesbian therapists invited to the first meeting. This was from a list I created of those that I knew lived and practiced in the region. Of the nine that attended, all were women, although many others, including many men, expressed interest but could not attend on that date.

The interest seems to be strong for a chapter. We could use the help of the general membership. If you have friends in the mental health community who live and work in the San Diego area, please let them know that we are organizing and would love their participation. Get them to contact me so they can be notified of upcoming events or if they are inclined to assist in the organization process. My email address is BeatrizGandara@aol.com.