DOJ: ‘No Scientific Basis' for Saying Same-Sex Couples ‘Not Fit to...Become Parents’

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbar)

(CNSNews.com) - In an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which the court will hear tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Justice argues that state laws prohibiting two people of the same sex from marrying each other are unconstitutional,

In its argument to the court, DOJ approvingly cites a statement issued by the government relations office of the American Psychological Association that says: “There is no scientific basis for the assertion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are not fit to marry or to become parents of health and well-adjusted children.”

Here is an excerpt from the brief:

As the court of appeals recognized, “gay couples, no less than straight couples, are capable of raising children and providing stable families for them.” Pet. App. 34a. “There is no scientific basis for the assertion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are not fit to marry or to become parents of healthy and well-adjusted children.” Am. Psychological Ass’n, Marriage Equality and LGBT Health 1, http://www.apa.org/about/gr/issues/lgbt/marriage-equality.pdf; see, e.g., Simon R. Crouch et al., Parent-Reported Measures of Child Health and Wellbeing in Same-Sex Parent Families, 14 BMC Public Health 635 (June 21, 2014); Am. Acad. of Pediatrics, Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents (Feb. 2002), http://www.pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/109/2/339.full.pdf+html.

The DOJ’s full brief arguing that it is unconstitutional to prohibit same-sex marriages can be found by clicking here.