Psychoanalysts'
Organization Backs Same-Sex Marriage

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)