Psychiatric Group May
Make a Stand
for Gay Marriage
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, May 23, 2005
ATLANTA, May 22 --
Representatives of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement on
Sunday urging legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
If approved by the association's directors in July, the measure would make the
group, the American Psychiatric Association, the first major medical
organization 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, three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of
mental disorders.
The psychiatric association's statement, approved by voice vote on the first day
of its weeklong annual meeting in Atlanta, cites the "positive influence of a
stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members."
The resolution recognizes "that gay men and lesbians are full human beings who
should be afforded the same human and civil rights," said Dr. Margery Sved, a
psychiatrist from Raleigh, N.C., who is a member of the assembly's committee on
gay and lesbian issues.
The statement says that the association is addressing same-sex civil marriage,
not religious marriages. It takes no position on any religion's views on
marriage.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage. Eighteen
states have passed constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage.
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