Psychiatrists May Push for Gay Marriage OK

Representatives of the nation’s top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association’s directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance.

The statement supports same-sex marriage “in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health.”

It follows a similar measure by the American Psychological Association last year, little more than three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

I don’t get it. Why would a professional association be promoting a type of social committment such as marriage between a specific subset of the population?? It doesn’t have anything to do with promoting mental health. It’s a waste of time making announcements of this nature, because it’s not going to affect the people who most have a problem with it.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 23 May 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.