Rockway Institute
The Rockway Institute, a national center for LGBT psychology research, education and public policy, advances the use of scientific and professional expertise to counter anti-gay prejudice and inform public policies affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The Institute's view is that public opinion, policies, and programs should be shaped by the facts about LGBT lives, not by political ideology. A primary goal is to organize the most knowledgeable scientists, mental health professionals, and physicians in the United States to provide accurate information about LGBT issues to the media, legislatures, and courts. In addition, the Institute conducts research to answer the nation's most pressing LGBT policy questions in the areas of couple/family relations, mental health, education, and health care.
Rockway Institute Initiatives
To carry out its programs, the Rockway Institute draws on a 19-member National Advisory Board, 21 core faculty members at Alliant International University’s Graduate Schools (including California School of Professional Psychology, the largest nonprofit training institution for clinical psychologists in the U.S.), and a large group of professionals located throughout the country. In collaboration with other organizations, the Institute calls upon these experts to provide accurate information to the media, legislatures, and the courts. The Institute also serves as a “go-to” resource for other groups that need experts and research information about LGBT issues in their public education and advocacy activities.
Areas of LGBT expertise at Rockway Institute include:
- Couple relationships and same-sex marriage
- Lesbian/gay parenting and child development
- LGBT youths in families and schools
- False claims by “ex-gay” groups
- Effects of discrimination in the workplace, health-care, and religious communities
- Mental health and substance abuse
- Aging and the elderly
- Successful coping with minority stress
Funding for the Institute’s Initiatives
The Rockway Institute relies on private donations and grants for its operations. Tax-deductible contributions by check can be made out to “Alliant International University” (specifying “Rockway Institute” in the memo line or a separate note) and sent to Rockway Institute at Alliant, 1 Beach Street Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94133-1221. To donate by credit card online, follow the instructions for designating your gift to the Rockway Institute at Alliant International University.
The Rockway Institute is named in memory of the late Alan Rockway, a pioneering psychologist who helped write and defend the first lesbian and gay employment non-discrimination ordinance to be approved in a major urban area in the U.S.(Dade County, Florida, 1977). Passage of this ordinance became a pivotal event in LGBT history because of the widely televised efforts by Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, and their anti-gay followers to repeal it. Dr. Rockway also started two of the nation's first LGBT mental health programs—in Miami, Florida, and Berkeley, California.