Image via Wikipedia

8/4/11 by LGR Health and Wellness News Staff

In a move that is sure to have far reaching ramifications, the American Psychological Association (APA), the world’s largest and most respected organization of psychologists has unanimously approved a resolution in support of full marriage equity for gay and lesbian couples.

According to USA Today, the policy making body of the American Psychological Association (APA) unanimously approved the resolution 157-0 on the eve of the group’s annual convention, which opens in Washington DC 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.”

Six states , Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont and the District of Columbia currently allow same-sex marriage.

The last APA resolution on sexual orientation and marriage was approved in 2004.

Related articles

• The Case for Same-Sex Marriage (psychologytoday.com)
• Plurality Of Americans Support Same-Sex Marriage (lezgetreal.com)