Dr. Kevin Nadal speaking at the White House Filipino American History Month Celebration in 2016
From 2014 to 2017, Nadal was appointed as the executive director of CLAGS: the Center for LGBTQ Studies (formerly known as Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies). In the organization, Nadal also co-founded the Division on Filipino Americans. Nadal is a national trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
Nadal's book Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice (Wiley, 2011) was noted for being the first comprehensive book on Filipino American mental health issues. Nadal has gone on to release other books on this and related topics.
Nadal's research and writings concentrate on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and the concept of racial microaggressions, and other microaggressions or subtle forms of discrimination towards racial/ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ populations. He created and published the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale in the Journal of Counseling Psychology in 2011. Nadal has also researched "sexual orientation microaggressions" In 2013, Nadal released That's So Gay!' Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community.
Awards
John Jay College Scholarly Excellence Award (2015)
Outstanding Filipino Americans of New York (2015)
APA Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest (2017)
Nadal was raised in Fremont, California. During his high school years, Nadal reports being bullied for being gay. Since 2010, he has become vocal about ending bullying in schools.
Social justice advocacy
Nadal has written or spoken about the need for Filipino Americans to address colorism within their families and communities, the need for people to challenge homophobia and transphobia, the experiences of invisibility and marginalization of Filipino Americans and other "brown Asians" in the general Asian American community,[citation needed] the racial microaggressions LGBTQ people of color experience in dating and sexual relationships, the systemic colorblindness and marginalization of people of color in queer studies, as well as anti-black racism.
In 2007, Nadal gained attention with several media outlets when he started an online petition against ABC Studios for negative statements made about Philippine medical schools on the television show Desperate Housewives.
In 2014, Nadal formed the LGBTQ Scholars of Color National Network as a way to provide support for LGBTQ people of color in academia.[citation needed]
In 2016, Nadal and his colleagues wrote an open letter to the New York Times for their lack of Filipino American representation in a video segment that described Filipino American experiences.
Nadal was also very vocal about addressing racism and Islamophobia in response to the Pulse tragedy in Orlando.
In 2017, American Psychologist published Nadal's "Let's Get In Formation": On Becoming a Psychologist-Activist in the 21st Century, where he argued of the ethical responsibility for psychologists to "combat oppression on individual, interpersonal, group, and institutional levels."
↑Nadal, Kevin L. (2020). Queering law and order: LGBTQ communities and the criminal justice system. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN978-1-7936-0106-3. OCLC1140680780.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑Nadal, Kevin L. (2018). Microaggressions and traumatic stress: theory, research, and clinical treatment. Washington, DC. ISBN978-1-4338-2860-7. OCLC1020265796.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑Cheng, S.A. (2014). "A Review of "That's so gay! Microaggressions and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community"". Journal of GLBT Family Studies. 10 (4): 422–424. doi:10.1080/1550428X.2014.897919. S2CID142225337.
↑Nadal, K.; etal. (2016). "Microaggressions Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Genderqueer People: A Review of the Literature". The Journal of Sex Research. 53 (4–5): 488–508. doi:10.1080/00224499.2016.1142495. PMID26966779. S2CID23205208.
↑Nadal, Kevin L. (2016). "The Intersection of Queer Theory and Empirical Methods: Visions for CLAGS, the Center for LGBTQ Studies". Women's Studies Quarterly. 44 (3–4): 301–305. doi:10.1353/wsq.2016.0060. S2CID88657169.