marriage resolution

PSA RESOLUTION*: PACIFIC SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION STATEMENT AGAINST THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROHIBITING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

The following resolution was unanimously endorsed by the PSA Council in 2004 and passed by a vote of the membership of the association in May of 2004. 

WHEREAS the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA) comprises sociologists and kindred professionals who study, among other things, sex and gender, sexualities, families, children, religion, culture, and systems of inequality and their effects, and WHEREAS the PSA is dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good, and

WHEREAS a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman intentionally discriminates against lesbians and gay men, as well as their children and other dependents, by denying access to, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, over 1100 U.S. Federal protections, benefits, and responsibilities extended automatically to married couples, and

WHEREAS we believe that the official justification for the proposed constitutional amendment is based on prejudice rather than empirical research, and WHEREAS sociological research has repeatedly shown that systems of inequality are detrimental to the public good,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Pacific Sociological Association strongly opposes the proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

*Sponsored by the PSA GLBT Committee