Diversity Rules Magazine

3 Diversity Rules Magazine March 2017 David-Elijah Nahmod is a film critic and re- porter in San Francis- co. His articles appear regularly in The Bay Area Reporter and SF Weekly. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter. Awhile back in this column I recalled a former friend who has a history of throwing tantrums in public and of going on vindictive rampages against anyone who said anything he disagreed with. What was so disturb- ing to me about Danny's behavior is that he's a thera- pist--Danny is a mentally unstable gay man who had been entrusted with the mental health care of other LGBT people. During the course of the 18 months that I knew Dan- ny I saw him viciously attack one person after another, often at the slightest provocation--on at least one oc- casion he filed a false police report because he wanted to piss his target off. At one point he expressed a desire to physically hurt the supervisor at the mental health clinic where he worked. "I want to cut the bitch," were Danny's exact words. As I wrote earlier, I reported Danny's alarming behavior to the California Board of Behavior Sciences, the office which licenses him to practice as a mental health care provider. e Board dismissed my complaint without even attempting to verify whether or not what I was reporting to them was true. According to the Board, I could not file a complaint against Danny because he wasn't my therapist. e fact that he expressed a desire to "cut the bitch" was of no concern to the Board. Danny and I have not spoken in several years, and my life has been all the better for it. A few weeks ago a mutual friend told me that he was no longer living in the United States. Danny had broken up with his boyfriend--a boyfriend I had been accused of trying to steal him from even though I had zero interest in be- ing in a relationship with him. Soon after the breakup Danny married someone else with whom he now lives in Ireland. e two left the USA in order to escape the horrors of the Trump presidency, though to be honest, I can't fault them for that. Out of curiosity I asked the mutual friend to let me have a look at Danny's Facebook page--I had blocked Danny some time ago. What I saw was as disturbing, and as sad, as everything I saw during our friendship. Most of Danny's posts came across like manic episodes. Among his many bizarre rants was his declaration that all liberals were his enemy--Danny labels himself "pro- gressive". He's on the "there's no difference between Trump and Clinton" bandwagon and considers Hilary Clinton voters to be sellouts to a vague corporate pa- triarchy which he seems unable to define. Of course everyone is morally obligated to agree with everything he says--or else. As far as Danny is concerned, being a "Queer radical standing up for social justice" means that he is infallible and above criticism of any kind. I'm not a psychiatrist and am in no position to make a medical diagnosis, but I don't think I'm stretching the truth to say that Danny is mentally ill. I've breathed several sighs of relief at the realization that he's no lon- ger in the USA and therefore no longer able to practice as a therapist here. I shudder to think of how much harm he might have done to his client base. at the California Board of Behavioral Sciences knowingly entrusted a mentally unstable man to work as a mental health care provider within an already trau- matized LGBT community is shameful and reckless. e Board needs to do some serious thinking about its woefully low standards. And make no mistake about it--we are a traumatized people. Decades, perhaps centuries of being subjected to anti-gay hate has turned us into the very monsters we claim to be standing against. Danny's behavior is a sad example of what all too often passes for normal, ac- ceptable behavior in the Queer community. Just look PTSD Memoir - Con't on page 6 If You Could Read My Mind Worst Therapist in the World - Part 2 By David-Elijah Nahmod

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