ERA Setback

It is dealt by psychiatrists

Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment adopted one of their most effective tactics in 1977 when they called for a boycott of all national conventions scheduled to be held in states that have failed to ratify ERA. Since then, over 400 professional, scientific and political organizations have refused to meet in non-ERA states, forgoing meetings in such traditional convention cities as Chicago, New Orleans and Miami. Now comes a major backslider from that boycott commitment: the American Psychiatric Association. On the pretense that the A.P.A. should avoid involvement in any political issue, the group voted 5,679 to 4,461 to rescind its boycott policy.

But pro-amendment forces fear that there is more to the vote than meets the eye. They believe that the A.P.A. membership may have swung against ERA, not just the boycott. Says Harvard Psychiatrist Nanette Gartrell: "I'm afraid if there were a vote now on whether ERA should be supported, it would lose." Feminists are now contemplating a movement to encourage psychiatrists to resign from the association over the issue. If that issue is pressed at next year's convention, it will have to happen in a non-ERA state. The 1981 A.P.A. meeting will be held in New Orleans.

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