IHI Founder Dr. Charles Silverstein, PhD (1935-2023)
January 30, 2023 - NEW YORK. With heavy heart, IHI announces the passing of our Founder Dr. Charles Silverstein, PhD.
Dr. Silverstein is well-known in LGBTQ+ communities and professional psychology as a stalwart activist in the struggle for gay rights, his professional contributions providing affirming psychotherapy and counseling to LGBTQ+ people, and for his published works on his lived experience as a gay man. His now historic 1973 presentation before the American Psychiatric Association led to the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the organization's seminal diagnostic manual. Later that same year, he founded the Institute for Human Identity and Identity House, two New York City-based organizations focused on affirming the self-determination and legitimacy of LGBTQ+-identified people.
Dr. Silverstein served as the founding editor of the Journal of Homosexuality, now in its seventieth volume. In popular media, he is best known for his groundbreaking 1977 book, The Joy of Gay Sex (Crown), a collaboration with Edmund White that was translated into five different languages. In 1992, he released The New Joy of Gay Sex (HarperCollins), collaborating this time with Felice Picano, which updated the original book to include the AIDS crisis and perspectives from a new generation. The Joy of Gay Sex: Third Edition (William Morrow) was published in 2003, again with Felice Picano as co-author, and further expanded the work of the previous editions.
He also published guides to assist parents in supporting their gay and lesbian children, to explore gay male love relationships, and to understand how the attitudes of therapists toward their LGBTQ+ clients impact psychotherapeutic treatment. In this vein, in 2011, he published a clinical guide for graduate students preparing for the profession of psychotherapy and treating LGBTQ+ clients and patients.
Over the years, he served as a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University Medical College, a consultant to the New York University AIDS Project, and a supervisor at the Institute for Human Identity. He was a member of the Ethics Committee of the New York State Psychological Association, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Sexology.
Dr. Silverstein was also the recipient of many august awards for his contrubutions to psychology, counseling, and activism. He was awarded the American Psychological Foundation's Gold Medal for Lifetime Acheivement in the Practice of Psychology; the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Book Award; the American Psychiatric Assocation's Distinguished Professional Contribution Award; and a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association. This past November, the American Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) honored Dr. Silverstein as the inaugural recipient of the Charles Silverstein Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Justice.
In his 2011 autobiography, For the Ferryman, Dr. Silverstein commissions us all to continue to fight for equality, justice, and liberation for LGBTQ+ people and communities, "The removal of homosexuality was only a step in our march toward LGBT civil rights. There are many other fields of battle being waged now and our community should join the fight for social change...join them in arguing for a liberal, not moralistic view of human sexuality. I will be there--even if I have to show up in a wheel chair."
As IHI celebrates fifty years of service to queer and transgender communities, we're grateful for his vision, courageousness, tenacity, and lifelong commitment to the LGBTQ+ community; we truly stand on his shoulders. Thank you, Charles.