Hi All, 

We were approached by and met with Joy Alifia, the Executive Director of CAMFT, and wanted to provide an update on that meeting and the information we received. We brought a number of issues to the table in addition to the initial letter that was collated from feedback from the community. These included CAMFT’s failure to improve policies and editing practices significantly after a similar incident in 2008 regarding gay marriage, additional potential accountability measures, a summary of the emotional impacts that others had reported from this incident, and our own personal reactions. We experienced Joy as non-defensive and empathetic during our conversation, and she was receptive to the feedback and ideas that we presented.

Below is a brief synopsis of our meeting that was written by Joy to assist with that update, so that we are not altering CAMFT’s overall message and priorities from that meeting. We would also like to invite/encourage petition signers to submit feedback via the comment section, which we will then pass along to CAMFT.

Joy wanted to highlight the advocacy work they are already doing for the LGBTQ+ community:

• Holding two CAMFT sponsored workshops on Gender Affirming Care at their Annual Conference
• CAMFT will continue to offer Gender Affirming and LGBTQ+ Affirming continuing education and training
• CAMFT is a leading sponsor of SB 372 in the California legislature to protect the privacy and ensure the safety of transgender and nonbinary Californians by eliminating the use of deadnames at the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) for licensed professionals who have changed their legal names

Moving forward they intend the following actions in response to the letter that was published:

• CAMFT has issued an initial public apology for publishing the letter and removed the offending letter from the recent publication online.
• The next issue of The Therapist will also include an apology and a clear statement of the steps CAMFT is taking to address the harm.
• CAMFT is evaluating ways to correct the inaccuracies and misinformation in the letter with up-to-date evidence-based gender-affirming care standards in future issues of The Therapist and other CAMFT platforms and programs.  
• CAMFT is currently reviewing the procedures for publishing pieces in The Therapist to update practices to ensure they fit within CAMFT’s values, ethics, and DEI standards.
• CAMFT was already in the process of hiring a reputable and experienced DEI consulting firm to provide the staff and Board DEI training along with an extensive deep dive assessment of the organizational culture to identify any areas for growth. 

We all know that it can take time to rebuild trust after a rupture like this, and we hope that CAMFT, under Joy’s leadership, will follow through with radical and decisive actions to do better for our communities. We acknowledge that the above message does not cover all of what the community has brought, and that time will tell on CAMFT’s response - this is only the beginning. Thank you again for your signatures, your comments and suggestions, and for the beautiful support that has emerged for our transgender community.  We will continue to update with any further information, and encourage community members to also reach out to CAMFT directly as this process continues.

Warmly, 

Katrina and Davi