American Psychiatric Foundation Helps Endow Fryer Award

The American Psychiatric Foundation (APF) Board of Directors has approved giving a $10,000 grant to endow the John Fryer, M.D., Award, which honors an individual whose work has contributed to the improvement of the mental health of sexual minorities.

Given by the APF in conjunction with the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists (AGLP), the award is named for the psychiatrist who in 1972 appeared as “Dr. H. Anonymous” at the APA annual meeting and played a significant role in convincing APA to begin the process of removing homosexuality as a diagnosis from DSM, which APA did the following year.

Fryer was forced to leave his psychiatry residency at the University of Pennsylvania when it was discovered that he was gay. He later completed his residency at Norristown State Hospital. For much of his career, Fryer was a professor of family and community psychiatry at Temple University.

The AGLP is planning a fund-raising campaign, in association with the APF, which will launch with this $10,000 matching grant, to help endow this award in perpetuity. Among the past winners of the Fryer Award are Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny, Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., and Richard Pillard, M.D.