Equality NC Hails the American Psychological Association's Unanimous Support for Marriage Equality

As USA Today reports, "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…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.”

The resolution 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's resolution was passed just as North Carolina legislators consider a proposed Anti-LGBT constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, while also writing LGBT discrimination into the state's founding document. Despite recent push back in opposition to the amendment, state lawmakers could take up this discriminatory legislation during a special session dedicated to constitutional amendments beginning September 12.

"The country's largest professional association of psychologists has now unanimously spoken to psychological impacts of marriage inequality--the same effects that could be enshrined in our constitution by North Carolina's anti-LGBT constitutional amendment," said Equality NC interim executive director, Alex Miller. "It's undeniable that North Carolina's LGBT couples and their children face an array of stresses stemming from an unjust exclusion of civil marriage rights."

Other professional health organizations that support the freedom to marry include the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Miller added, "We applaud the APA for their support as Equality NC continues to work tirelessly to prevent these harms from being written into our state constitution and  toward curing all inequities facing LGBT families in North Carolina."

Click here to learn more about NC's proposed anti-LGBT amendment and what you can do RIGHT NOW to help defeat it.