Interview with Mary Briggs

Abstract

Mary Briggs discusses how she got involved with the Program in Human Sexuality (PHS); the development and creation of PHS; the Glide Foundation and the National Sex Forum; the American Lutheran Church; the Sexual Attitude Reassessment seminars; PHS’s work on disability; the relationship between PHS and local church organizations; staff dynamics; Sexual Health Services; moving PHS into the Department of Family Practice and Community Health; her own education and research; the sex offender treatment program; and why she left PHS. She also discusses community responses to PHS; the decision to house PHS in the medical school dean’s office; the PHS executive committee; the relationship between church groups and medical groups in PHS; the Committee on Religion and Ethics; the family SARS in Mabel, MN; the Medical School curriculum in human sexuality; and transsexuality. She talks about Richard Chilgren, Theodore Cole, Thomas Mauer, James Siefkes, Dan Weiss, Donald Houge, and others who were involved with PHS in the 1970s.