Anthropolgists Oppose Amendment to Ban Gay Marriage

State­ment on Mar­riage and the Fam­i­ly from the Amer­i­can Anthro­po­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion:

Arling­ton, Vir­ginia; The Exec­u­tive Board of the Amer­i­can Anthro­po­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion, the world’s largest orga­ni­za­tion of anthro­pol­o­gists, the peo­ple who study cul­ture, releas­es the fol­low­ing state­ment in response to Pres­i­dent Bush’s call for a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment ban­ning gay mar­riage as a threat to civilization.

“The results of more than a cen­tu­ry of anthro­po­log­i­cal research on house­holds, kin­ship rela­tion­ships, and fam­i­lies, across cul­tures and through time, pro­vide 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 con­tribute to sta­ble and humane societies.

The Exec­u­tive Board of the Amer­i­can Anthro­po­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion strong­ly oppos­es a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment lim­it­ing mar­riage to het­ero­sex­u­al couples.”

Cur­rent Mood: 😴sleepy

Related