APA Unanimously Supports Gay Marriage

The American Psychological Association, the world’s largest organization of psychologists, voted unanimously this week on a resolution to support same-sex marriage.

The 157-0 vote came on Tuesday, the eve of the association’s annual convention in Washington.

From USA Today:

The group, with more than 154,000 members, has long supported full equal rights for gays, based on social science research on sexual orientation. Now the nation’s psychologists — citing an increasing body of research about same-sex marriage, as well as increased discussion at the state and federal levels — took the support to a new level.

“Now as the country has really begun to have experience with gay marriage, our position is much clearer and more straightforward — that marriage equity is the policy that the country should be moving toward,” says Clinton Anderson, director of APA’s Office on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns.

The resolution points to numerous recent studies, including findings that “many gay men and lesbians, like their heterosexual counterparts, desire to form stable, long-lasting and committed intimate relationships and are successful in doing so.”

It adds that “emerging evidence suggests that statewide campaigns to deny same-sex couples legal access to civil marriage are a significant source of stress to the lesbian, gay and bisexual residents of those states and may have negative effects on their psychological well-being.”

The APA has consistently discussed the psychological harms of same-sex marriage bans, and also the benefits of allowing same-sex marriage.

The APA’s decision to codify its support for allowing same-sex marriage as a means to emotional well-being, and in such strong terms, is however, a landmark.

This move is expected to have an impact on state battles to legalize same-sex marriage and no doubt could be used in ongoing federal cases on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal ban on same-sex marriage recognition, as previous statements made by the APA have been used in other cases.

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Glen P.

2:27PM PDT on Oct 6, 2011

157 to ZERO! You mean there are NO members of the APA board who use their unsupported religious bigotry to make decisions? Seriously, don't ANY of them know that God is in infinite wisdom found in the Bible has condemned homosexuality, and therefore they should base their scientific opinions on the Bible (aka the Truth).

What is this world coming to when sound scientific and sociological research, observation, and data trumps the clear and unequivocal word of god!

October 6
send a green star

Ann G.

1:02PM PDT on Aug 19, 2011

This is fantastic. Just wonderful. Seriously, it just goes to show you that support is growing daily.

August 19
send a green star

Annmari L.

2:27PM PDT on Aug 13, 2011

Long overdue, APA, but better late than never. And Tom Y. and David J.: Could you please use your negative energy in a more suitable forum, like the kkk or edf or eap websites?

August 13
send a green star

Tom Y.

4:39PM PDT on Aug 9, 2011

Thank you, Mark Alan D. By succumbing to the bullying leverage of activist pressure, the APA took its first step down the wrong path. They allowed a crude political argument to replace science. Vetting gender-neutral marriage is the outcome that proves the madness of that whole enterprise. What good is the APA for now, except as a regulatory body to discourage or defame research that yields results contrary to the official line of "gay is okay"?