Study: Gay Health Imperiled By Denial Of Marriage

[LiberalGuy000]

by Mark Worrall, 365Gay.com San Francisco Bureau
February 28, 2006 - 3:00 pm ET

(San Francisco, California) A new national study shows widespread psychological and social harm inflicted on same-sex couples because they are denied the right to marry.

The study, called “I Do, But I Can’t" was released at a San Francisco news conference Tuesday by the National Sexuality Resource Center and is the first first peer-reviewed study to analyze the impact of marriage denial on the mental health and well being of gay men and lesbians.

The co-authors are Gilbert Herdt, PhD, anthropologist, and director of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University, and Robert Kertzner, MD, practicing psychiatrist, and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University.

They found that on average, married individuals have better mental health, more emotional support, less psychological distress, and lower rates of psychiatric disorder than the unmarried.

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/02/022806marrHealth.htm

[Warpy]

1. Well, that's certainly true for males

Studies have shown that married women are more stressed and more depressed than their single sisters, with or without children.

I don't know what the stats would be like for married gays and lesbians, but it would be very interesting to find out.

It would be hilsarious to find out that marriage to a woman is good for us, but marriage to a man is not.

[Child_Of_Isis]

4. marriage to a woman is good for us, but marriage to a man is not

I think they already have. I recall reading this.

[megatherium]

7. you know the fundies are going to say that marriage is

healthy for gays but only if they marry the opposite sex. The real cruelty of what they claim is that gay people cannot have healthy, permanent committed relationships. But of course they do have these relationships, as anyone who actually knows gay people is aware.

[MrPrax]

2. Sounds good...

but don't tell the fundies, they will simply use "They found that on average, married individuals have better mental health, more emotional support, less psychological distress, and lower rates of psychiatric disorder than the unmarried." to do away with divorce laws as a health benefit.

[closeupready]

3. I knew this already, but it won't matter to many fundies who think,

"marriage is a reward for being heterosexual." Circular logic. They don't think.

[Plaid Adder]

5. I'll tell you something about this "minority stress" thing.

It's real. And it does affect your health.

I have noticed, for instance, that when the wedge-issue crap really heats up, all of my little chronic pains get worse. (Back pain, stiffness, trouble sleeping, blood pressure, etc.) Makes election cycles a joy.

My partner works in a city where you can register as a domestic partnership (we don't live there, but you can do it if you work there because it's mainly so people can get put on each other's insurance). So, on our 15th anniversary (we count from the day we first got together) we went in and registered. Now, initially, I was not that excited about it, because basically it's going down to a municipal office and filling out a form. But, I could see how much it mattered to her, because she's a lawyer and all, so we got dressed up and went out and filed the paperwork.

I cannot describe to you how moving it was to see how happy it made her to do this. She just lit up. It made that much of a difference to her to have that little piece of validation. It will always be one of our happiest memories, though it is a little bittersweet for me because of course she wouldn't have been so affected by this if she were not so hurt by the way so much of the rest of the country treats us.

It is difficult to explain this to straight people because they are so used to taking this kind of thing for granted--or seeing it as a looming universal imperative which they are doing their best to escape. Not being able to marry will not make any difference to either of us in terms of how we feel about each other or how long the relationship lasts. It does make a difference to how we feel about the world and our place in it, and that does matter.

This study will, of course, be rejected and misinterpreted by the opponents of same-sex marriage and therefore will probably not have much of a practical effect. But it does document something real, and something that affects all of us in ways that are pretty much invisible to straight people most of the time.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Maat]

6. I asked both my gay and lesbian friends about this very issue ..

and they agree with you.

Thanks for your post.

This PFLAGer will never give up the fight for equal protection of the law for EVERYONE.

[LostinVA]

12. And thank YOU for being in PFLAG

A great organization... we couldn't do it without our straight relatives and friends supporting and loving us!

[Maat]

13. Thanks for the kind words! Right back at ya'!

It is my honor to give that support. I have a friend who got me started in social work (and, ultimately, the law). She has been in a committed relationship for quite some time. We've been friends for fifteen years, and I consider her a 'sister.'

[LostinVA]

14. A pat on the head

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[dysfunctional press]

10. kind of how a straight liberal atheist feels in the U.S. too.

there are lots of minorities in this country.

[Divine Discontent]

15. and how a.......

gay moderate democrat who is also a christian feels, too.

we ALL have been affected by bigotry, racism, and radical fudamentalism...

I applaud plaid adder for her forthright post above about personal issues.

bless her...

[slackmaster]

8. I know gay and straight couples who are happily unmarried together

I have mixed feelings about this article. I don't believe there is anything inherently magic about marriage that has effects on peoples' health; rather it's the relationship itself.

If two people who are happy together feel that they aren't as happy or healthy as they can be simply because they can't enter into a marriage then by all means they should be able to marry, but I don't necessarily buy that there is a physiological reason that marriage in and of itself would make such a difference.

This may be a chicken-and-egg situation, where people who are predisposed to have good mental health, low stress, etc. are more inclined to marry than those who are not. The social pressures gay people experience regardless of access to marriage appear to me to be the likely culprit in many of their mental health issues.

[Sabriel]

9. I can vouch for this

My sister got married when Multnomah County was still performing them. She and her partner were thrilled and couldn't wait to share the news. Then they had to watch the news anxiously as the marriages were first debated and then later declared null and void. You wouldn't believe the devastating depression period they went through after that. As she put it, "It was a total denial of us being worthy of human status."

The rest of the family used to joke about how her marriage hadn't adversely affected us...yet. It wasn't so funny later when she was denied basic human dignity and equity.

[Orsino]

11. Duh.

Telling people that they're second- or third-class citizens hurts.

[kestrel91316]

16. You DO realize that that's the POINT of denying marriage to gays..........

it's no accident. It's what the SOB's really want. Dead gays, rather than live ones.