The American
Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) announced Wednesday that
it supports the legalization of same-sex marriage for gay
and lesbian couples, according to a press
release.
The APsaA, a
professional organization composed of over 3,500
psychoanalysts in the United States, has accumulated
research over the past eight years on LGBT families
raising children that it says debunks previously
inaccurate scientific testimony.
Charlotte
Patterson, professor of psychology at the University of
Virginia, has researched the development of children raised
by same-sex parents. In 2006 she wrote that the
results of the research of various population samples
of lesbian and gay families "suggest that qualities of
family relationships are more tightly linked with child
[development] outcomes than is parental sexual orientation."
Gary Grossman,
former chair of the APsaA's Committee on Gay and Lesbian
Issues, said in the statement, "As experts of 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 nation's gays and
lesbians and their loved ones, and the denial of
marriage has psychologically detrimental
consequences." (The Advocate)
