Experts At Everything

It looks like the American Psychiatric Association may soon officially support same-sex marriage. When I first heard this, I wondered "what's it their business?" Then I read the explanation--it's "in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health." You see, if society gives gays full civil rights, they'll feel better. I preferred it when I didn't understand why it's their business.

It's scary that the APA thinks it can comment on any issue, since, let's face it, everything sooner or later deals with how you feel about yourself. (Normalize anything and those who once felt bad may feel better.)

Do they have even one iota of evidence behind their claim? Any studies (seems doubtful, since there aren't too many gay marriages to study)? Not as far as I can tell. Their so-called scientific opinion seems more like raw politics.

Moreover, they don't even seem to understand the issue--they're personally on one side and think that should be enough as a professional body to speak out. But it's far more complex; most who oppose same sex marriage might agree it would make gays happier, but still feel it's a bad idea.

Fourth, let's be honest--plenty of the history of psychiatry, scientifically and medically speaking, has been on shaky ground. Why don't they spend the next few decades shoring up their own foundations rather than telling society what to do? I know it's not as much fun, but just try and give us good science, we'll take it from there when it comes to politics.