This section will be dedicated to facts to help you discuss social issues with people who do not support marriage equality. We’re going to find studies that come from neutral sources that help demonstrate that same-sex couples don’t make bad parents, that they don’t molest children more often, that society doesn’t instantly crumble, etc. We’re also going to find statistics from Massachusetts and some European countries that describe how things have gone since same-sex marriages were legalized there.
We are absolutely open to other topics in this section as well, so please let us know if there is a subject you have information on or that you’d like us to research for you to use.
FAMILY REJECTION = NEGATIVE HEALTH OUTCOMES
There is a wonderful new study being published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics which states that there is a direct correlation between a family rejecting their child because the child is gay, lesbian or bisexual and significantly higher health risks for that individual. The risks include increased suicide attempts, increased numbers of people suffering from depression as well as higher rates of unprotected sex and drug use.
It is important to note that the American Academy of Pediatrics is an advocacy group for children and teenagers and while they are political, their stated task is to protect youths. In other words they are not on the “right” or the “left” here.
Please read this article and please use this as an example of why discriminatory behavior is so harmful to our community.
Gay.com has done a wonderful article in relation to the above study: New Study Finds Family Behavior Key To Health of Gay Youth.
People need to know what rights are taken away from a gay or lesbian couple. This isn’t theoretical or numbers on a page. There is a real, human cost of inequality, and it looks like this: DUAL CITIZENS – The Federal Government won’t recognize legally married gay couples by Ellen Goodman in Pittsburgh’s Post-Gazette
