In 1997 APsaA endorsed the following Marriage Resolution:
“Because marriage is a basic human right and an individual personal choice, RESOLVED, the State should not interfere with same-gender couples who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities, and commitment of civil marriage.”
The adoption of this resolution was a response to the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Clinton in September 1996. The Marriage Resolution was drafted and circulated by Lambda Legal, a gay/lesbian legal advocacy organization, and has been endorsed by hundreds of professional organizations and individuals…
Civil marriage provides a legal framework for the creation and dissolution of committed relationships; it socially sanctions a relationship, defining its legal rights, benefits and responsibilities. Marriage thus functions as stabilizing force. Government sanctioned discrimination against gay and lesbian couples denies them the 1.049 rights, benefits, and protections that, according to the General Accounting Office of the federal government*, civil marriage confers in areas of health care, insurance, property, finances, and inheritance. Research is now emerging** that outlines the benefits that accrue to married same-sex couple and their children. Discriminatory marriage laws adversely affect the children of same-sex couples. The APsaA has previously issued a position paper on same-sex adoption. Although some states now allow second parent adoptions, children of same-sex couples in most of the United States are not permitted to be adopted by their second parent and thus are more vulnerable than children of married parents. For example, health benefits may not be available to the child if the non-biological or non-adoptive parent is the only parent with health insurance. If relationship dissolution occurs, the non-biological or non-adoptive parent may lose parental rights, subjecting the child to potentially traumatizing loss, instability and financial insecurity. Further, socially sanctioned discrimination adds to the burdens of both the children of same-sex couples as well as gay and lesbian youth (who have higher rates of suicide attempts than heterosexual youth).
http://www.apsa.org/About_APsaA/Position_Statements/Gay_Marriage.aspxSEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPIES
Jack Drescher, M.D.
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/sexual-conversion-therapies-jack.html
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