Teresa DeCrescenzo
Research conducted by Haleigh Marcello
lesbian feminist, activist, social worker
Teresa (Terry) Ann DeCrescenzo is a lesbian feminist, activist, and social worker from Los Angeles, California.
early life + education
DeCrescenzo was born on April 18, 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eugene DeCrescenzo and Pauline Bossi Guest.
DeCrescenzo moved to California by the 1970s to pursue her education, becoming a marriage and family therapist and social worker. She obtained a degree in Urban Planning from Pepperdine University in 1976.
DeCrescenzo received Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1978. She was later recognized by USC as one of its Distinguished Alumna in 1991.
relationship with betty berzon
DeCrescenzo met her lifetime partner Betty Berzon in 1973. Berzon was one of the first openly gay psychotherapists, and the two bonded over their passion for helping LGBT people with mental health issues. The pair were together for thirty-three years before Berzon passed away from breast cancer in 2006.
In their time together, DeCrescenzo and Berzon pushed for equal rights for LGBT people. They were among the eight founders of the Western Gay Academic Union in 1976. Together, they founded the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues. Both attended the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, where they were married in a mass wedding ceremony.
Additionally, DeCrescenzo and Berzon helped to usher forth equal rights for LGBT people in the state of California through their lawsuits of the Southern California Automobile Association (SoCal AAA) and TWA Airlines. As a result of these suits, SoCal AAA was forced to offer same-sex couple insurance, and TWA airlines allowed same-sex couples to receive membership in their Ambassadors Club. DeCrescenzo and Berzon also pushed for Cedars-Sinai Hospital to recognize same-sex couples on hospital admission forms, leading to a California state ruling making all hospitals include options for same-sex couples on their paperwork. In their thirty-three years together, DeCrescenzo and Berzon not only changed each other’s lives, but positively impacted the lives of LGBT people throughout California.
national women's conference
DeCrescenzo was one of the co-founders of Southern California Women for Understanding (SCWU), a feminist activist group, founded in 1976.
As a result of her role within SCWU, in 1977, DeCrescenzo was nominated to serve as a California delegate to the National Women’s Conference.
DeCrescenzo was a part of the California Lesbian Caucus, pushing for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and the conference’s resolution on sexual preference. Her attendance at the National Women’s Conference was just the beginning of her efforts to ensure equal rights for LGBT people.
lgbt activism + work in the lgbt community
In 1983, DeCrescenzo was one of the first women to serve as president of the board of the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center. In her role as president, alongside fellow social worker and lesbian Del Martinez, DeCrescenzo pushed for the Center to become more accepting and diverse of people of color and people with disabilities. DeCrescenzo and Martinez were met with backlash, however, and were told that catering to a more diverse community would not allow the Center to raise the money it needed to stay in operation.
One of DeCrescenzo’s biggest accomplishments was her founding of Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS) in 1985. Inspired by her work with the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center’s Martel House, which was created when she was president of the Center’s board; her work with youths in the Los Angeles County Probation Department; and her fifteen years of experience at the Dorothy F. Kirby Center working with at-risk youth, DeCrescenzo founded the first LGBT youth foster care program in the United States.
DeCrescenzo's work with GLASS was recognized many times over the following two decades. In 1995, DeCrescenzo was named as an Outstanding Administrator by the Child Welfare League of America for her work with GLASS. She was also later given its 2005 Pioneer Award. Additionally, in 2007 DeCrescenzo was named the winner of the Making a Difference Award from Matthew Shepard Foundation for her work with LGBT youth. She was also named a Monette-Horowitz Trust Awardee that year.
Trouble arose within GLASS in 1996, with former foster children accusing volunteers of sexual assault. DeCrescenzo, as head of the organization, was accused of remaining silent about the abuse for years. As a result, for some time, DeCrescenzo was barred from working with social services agencies until the matter was investigated, and DeCrescenzo and GLASS were allowed to continue to operate as social services providers. This was not the end of GLASS’s troubles. The organization’s board of directors declared bankruptcy in 2009. DeCrescenzo was against the board’s decision to declare bankruptcy, noting that with help from Los Angeles County, the organization would have continued to thrive. GLASS still operates in Los Angeles in a limited capacity today.
By the year 2000, DeCrescenzo had become a well-established author in the field of LGBT mental health. She published Helping Lesbian and Gay Youth: New Policies, New Programs, New Practice (1994), Gay and Lesbian Professionals in the Closet: Who’s In, Who’s Out, and Why (1997), and co-authored Serving Transgender Youth: The Role of Child Welfare Systems: Proceedings of a Colloquium (2000) with Gerald P. Mallon. She has also authored numerous articles and pamphlets on the subject.
In 2006, DeCrescenzo provided archival materials for and feedback on Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons’s book Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. DeCrescanzo was also interviewed by the authors for the book, remarking on her experience as a femme lesbian entering a Los Angeles dyke bar and being singled out because of her appearance.
social worker
From 1993 to 2003, DeCrescenzo was a lecturer in social work at California State University, Long Beach. After ten years at Long Beach, DeCrescenzo left to become a lecturer in the Sociology Department at California State University, Northridge. She teaches courses in social policy, social work practice, and LGBT sociology.
DeCrescenzo was the 2007 recipient of the Knee/Wittman Outstanding Achievement in Health and Mental Health Policy Award from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). This was not the first time she was recognized by the organization. In 1990, DeCrescenzo was named NASW’s Social Worker of the Year. In October of 2012, DeCrescenzo was inducted into the NASW Hall of Distinction.
As of 2014, in addition to lecturing and having her own private psychotherapy practice (which she began in 1979), DeCrescenzo served as Director of Social Services for Centinela Hospital Medical Center.
politics
DeCrescenzo has also been quite involved in politics. Notably, she has been the Commissioner of the City of West Hollywood’s Human Services office since 1996.
In 2011, she hosted a campaign event targeted toward LGBT people for Torie Osborn’s 50th District California Assembly race. DeCrescenzo helped Osborn stand out as one of the only candidates to openly cater to the LGBT community.
In 2019, she worked with Representative Maxine Waters on a bill to combat homelessness.
decrescenzo today
DeCrescenzo in 2015
DeCrescenzo lives in Studio City, California, and is still an active activist.
She is a board member of the Lambda Literary Foundation, which encourages and awards publications of LGBT literature. DeCrescenzo supports the organization not only with her time but charitably, by donating to establish the Lambda Literary’s Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award (now distributed by The Publishing Triangle), in honor of her life partner.
DeCrescenzo is also a prolific donor to the Jeffrey and Mona Leites Endowment Foundation/California Community Foundation and serves as secretary and treasurer of the City of Angels Ballet.
In her free time, DeCrescenzo enjoys collecting wine, cooking, reading, and traveling.
bibliography
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image credits
Nelson48, Boston Financial District Skyline, June 26, 2006, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Financial_District_skyline.jpg.
Edward Blake, Pepperdine University-24618235821, January 28, 2016, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pepperdine_University-24618235821.jpg.
EEJCC, Bovard Auditorium at dusk, University of Southern California, July 21, 2021, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bovard_Auditorium_at_dusk,_University_of_Southern_California.jpg.
Elvert Barnes, 08.LGBT.MOW.25April1993 (24025813430), April 25, 1993, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:08.LGBT.MOW.25April1993_(24025813430).jpg.
Matt Popovich, assorted flag lot, January 26, 2016, Photograph, Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/UVe-5ZyDdAE.
White House Staff Photographers, Rosalynn Carter with Betty Ford and Ladybird Johnson at the National Womens Conference. - NARA - 176924, November 19, 1977, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosalynn_Carter_with_Betty_Ford_and_Ladybird_Johnson_at_the_National_Womens_Conference._-_NARA_-_176924.jpg.
Elijahcohen-saperstein, Glass logo, January 27, 2014, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glass_logo.jpg.
Alan Light, Los Angeles Pride 1991 001, June 1, 1991, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Los_Angeles_Pride_1991_001.jpg.
Unidentified Creator, OviattLibrary, 2009, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OviattLibrary.jpg.
Alexander Migl, Hollywood West Entrance P4060208, April 6, 2018, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hollywood_West_Entrance_P4060208.jpg.
Unidentified Creator, Torie1, 2012, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torie1.tiff.
Unidentified Creator, Maxine Waters Official, 2012, Photograph, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maxine_Waters_Official.jpg.
University of Southern California Libraries, screenshot from Teresa Decrescenzo oral history interview, 2015, Photograph, Calisphere, https://calisphere.org/item/5b919788171fbb34766bafac87d9f9d2/.