Psychoanalysts Support Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage

No doubt this announcement by The American Psychoanalytic Association (http://www.apsa.org/ABOUTAPSAA/POSITIONSTATEMENTS/MARRIAGERESOLUTION/tabid/470/Default.aspx will further fuel the insanity and faoming at the mouths of some of the Christianists who disreard any and all medical and mental health expert opinions in respect to gays and homosexuality. But and then again, they are the same folks who believe that the earth is only about 6,000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs once cavorted together. Here are some highlights from Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080312/pl_usnw/psychoanalysts_support_legal_recognition_of_same_sex_marriage):

NEW YORK, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) has issued a position statement supporting the legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage while opposing discrimination against same-sex couples. In recognition that gay and lesbian couples are raising children and possess the same potential and desire for life-long relationships as their heterosexual counterparts, the APsaA seeks to assist in ending the government-sanctioned discrimination against homosexual couples that denies them over 1,000 federal rights and benefits.

We want people to think about the broad impact the denial of same-sex marriage has on Americans today, says Ethan Grumbach, Ph.D., chair of APsaA's Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues. Families exist in many different ways and it is important for same-sex couples to have legal and societal recognition of their unions for themselves, their children, and their extended families.

Gay and lesbian couples are being denied the right to marry in this country on the basis of false scientific testimony, says Gary Grossman, Ph.D., member and former chair of APsaAs Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues. As experts on emotional experience, the membership of the American Psychoanalytic Association has an obligation to clarify its position that same-sex marriage offers substantial mental health benefits for the nations gays and lesbians and their loved ones, and the denial of marriage has psychologically detrimental consequences.