Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker

I have shown this video to my students many times, and I love it every time I see it.

The video documents the life and work of Evelyn Hooker, Ph.D., the first researcher to assess a community sample of gay men (as opposed to a sample of gay men seeking therapy or a sample of gay men incarcerated for their homosexuality) and to compare them with a community sample of heterosexual men. Her research found that even "experts" in the Rorschach and other psychological tests could not distinguish the protocols of gay men from the protocols of the straight men. Her research set off shock waves in the scientific community and led other researchers to replicate her study. This line of research was one of the factors that led the American Psychiatric Association to vote to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

This video is interesting from a scientific perspective, from a historical perspective, and from a human perspective. There are parts of it that make me teary-eyed every time I see it.

The video is 75 minutes long. My only suggestion would be to create a somewhat shorter version to allow for more time to discuss it after showing it in class.