Psychologist Way Off Base With View On Gay Marriages

Another in the Voices of Venango County series, this excerpted from a letter by Carie Forden, Ph.D., of Oil City to The Derrick 6/8/06:

(The letter refers to a presentation in Venango County by Bill Maier, Vice-President, Psychologist in Residence at Focus On The Family, an anti-gay extremist organization based in Colorado. The program was promoted by Lighthouse Ministries of Franklin, an organization affiliated with Venango County's own anti-gay extremist, Diane Gramley.)

As a psychologist and a member of the American Psychological Association, I feel compelled to respond to an article which described a presentation made by a psychologist and radio host named Bill Maier*, who is opposed to gay marriage.

I want to make clear that this view is not representative of the majority of psychologists, nor is it supported by scientific research. In fact, the scientific evidence is such that the American Psychological Association has adopted a resolution which advocates for the establishment of civil marriage for same-sex couples.

This resolution also encourages psychologists to act to eliminate all discrimination against same-sex couples (http:/www.apa.org).

Maier gives a false picture of scientific evidence. He ignores the psychological research which consistently shows that gay and lesbian relationships are equivalent to those of heterosexuals in terms of satisfaction and commitment, and that gay and lesbian parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to raise helathy and well-adjusted children.

While Maier implies that anthropological and sociological research provides support for banning gay marriage, in fact, both the American Anthropological Association and the American Sociological Association oppose such a ban.

The American Anthropological Association has released a statement saying that "more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provides no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.

Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contriute to stable and humane societies" (http://www.aaanet.org).

Likewise, the American Sociological Association has adopted a resolution strongly opposing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying that "we believe that the official justification for the proposed constitutional amendment is based on prejudice rather than empirical research" (http://www.asanet.org).


Although Bill Maier is a psychologist, it seems that his views on gay marriage are based more on his religious beliefs than on the sound scientific evidence of his profession. It is simply not accurate to argue that research supports the idea that a ban on gay marriage will benefit society, and that traditional heterosexual marriage is the only kind of healthy relationship.