PEOPLE : The ‘Rosa Parks of Gay Rights’

“In many ways,” says psychologist Evelyn Hooker, “Los Angeles is where gay liberation really began”-- not the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where gays confronted police in June, 1969.

There had been earlier studies on homosexuality, says Hooker, a former UCLA professor. But Hooker’s study, published in 1957, concluded that homosexuality is within the range of normal human behavior, not--as was widely believed--a mental illness. Many of Hooker’s peers at first dismissed her findings. (Until 1973, the American Psychiatric Assn. listed homosexuality as a mental disorder.)

But now 84, retired and living in Santa Monica, Hooker will receive the American Psychological Assn.’s highest honor at its mid-August meeting for “distinguished contributions to psychology in the public interest.”

Hooker might not be able to accept in person because she’s “in between hip surgeries,” but she says she treasures the award as validation of her pioneering work.

Other honors are coming. Richard Schmiechen and David Haugland’s documentary, “Changing Our Minds: The Story of Evelyn Hooker,” will have its L.A. premiere July 16 at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Says Eric Marcus, author of “Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights”: “We can’t underestimate how important her study was. She is the Rosa Parks of the gay rights movement.”