Charles Silverstein, a psychologist and therapist who played a key role in getting homosexuality declassified as a mental illness, died Jan. 30 at 87. He had lung cancer, according to his executor Aron Berlinger.
“Before I came out, I was not very brave. When I came out, I came out all the way, not just sexually but politically,” Silverstein told the Rutgers Oral History Archives in 2019.
The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies announced Silverstein’s death on Twitter, describing him as “a hero, an activist, a leader, and a friend” whose “contributions to psychology and the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals have been felt around the world.”
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