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"Psychology's Case for Same-sex Marriage." //Psychology's Case for Same-sex Marriage//. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Aug. 2012. <[]>.

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 * 1) Just days after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down California’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, APA President Carol D. Goodheart, EdD, opened a series of APA Annual Convention sessions highlighting what psychological science can add to the public debate over same-sex marriage.
 * 2) “The fact that we’re meeting in this state has given us an unmatched opportunity to focus public attention on the scientific research into the benefits to mental health of marriage, and conversely, on the pernicious health effects of discrimination and stigma,” Goodheart said.
 * 3) California continues to be a key battleground state for same-sex marriage. Although the State Assembly approved legislation allowing same-sex marriage in 2005 and 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed both measures, and the question moved to the courts.
 * 4) After the California Supreme Court ruled in May 2008 that denying same-sex couples marriage rights was unconstitutional, more than 18,000 same-sex couples got married in the next six months. In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. Walker ruled that the amendment was unconstitutional Aug.
 * 5) Annual Convention speaker Gregory M. Herek, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, who had spent a day on the stand as an expert witness for plaintiffs seeking to overturn the California amendment, talked about the questions he’s most often asked when courts examine same-sex marriage laws.
 * 6)  Laws that exclude lesbian, gay and bisexual people from marriage cause stress, and that stress negatively impacts physical and mental health, said Ilan Meyer, PhD, of Columbia University. The experience of living with stigma, always being vigilant and constantly needing to conceal your “authentic self” from disapproval and even violence exacerbates the pressures that everyone feels in daily life, he said.
 * 7) Surveys conducted in California showed that 75 percent of lesbians and more than half of gay men were in a relationship with one person, said Letitia Anne Peplau, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles. Data also show that similar to heterosexuals, many lesbians and gay men date in their 20s, settle down into a relationship in their 30s and maintain it long-term.
 * 8) Research shows that children raised by lesbian and gay parents develop in the same positive ways that children raised by heterosexual parents do, and that same-sex couples are just as capable of providing a supportive environment for children, said Charlotte J. Patterson, PhD, of the University of Virginia.
 * 9) When same-sex couples have the opportunity to get legally married, they run out and say, ‘I do,’ said M.V. Lee Badgett, PhD, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In contrast, civil unions and domestic partnerships are not viewed as having the same emotional weight, social approval and legal protections as marriage, Badgett said.
 * 10) New research shows that children adopted into lesbian and gay families are as well-adjusted as children adopted by heterosexual parents, and follow similar patterns of gender development, said Charlotte J. Patterson, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia.
 * 11) Patterson discussed the results of a study in press in //Applied Developmental Science // at an APA Annual Convention symposium on same-sex marriage.
 * 12) Patterson and co-authors Rachel H. Farr, a psychology doctoral student at UVA, and Stephen L. Forssell, PhD, of George Washington University, studied 106 families — including 56 same-sex couples and 50 heterosexual couples — who adopted children at birth or in the first few weeks of life.
 * 13) In the study, parents assessed their own parenting styles and relationship satisfaction. They also filled out the Preschoolers’ Activities Inventory, which assesses whether gender role behavior conforms to expected patterns or not, and the Child Behavior Checklist. Teachers and day-care providers were asked to complete the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, which assesses a child’s somatic complaints, anxiety, depression and withdrawn behaviors.
 * 14) By looking at parents’ self-reports and reports of others, the researchers found that the children of gays and lesbians were virtually indistinguishable from children of heterosexual parents.
 * 15) Patterson and her co-authors point out that while numerous studies have documented patterns of healthy development among children born to lesbian and gay parents, very little research about adoptive gay and lesbian families has been reported. With an estimated 100,000 children waiting to be adopted in the United States as of 2008, the research indicates that policies in states that forbid gay and lesbian couples from adopting need to be re-examined, Patterson said.