When Uganda President Yoweri Museveni announced that he would use scientific evidence about the origins of sexual orientation as the basis for his decision on whether to sign an anti-homosexuality bill, APA and other psychological associations saw an opportunity to educate.
In their letter to the president, nine organizations outlined why supporting the bill — which would punish those in same-sex relationships with up to life in prison — is inconsistent with science. For example, one study has found that 88 percent of gay men and 68 percent of lesbians report they have no choice at all about their sexual orientation (Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2010). Other research has shown that efforts to change a person's sexuality are largely ineffective and even harmful, according to APA's 2009 Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation.
Most important, the letter argues, discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people negatively affects both them and society — regardless of whether sexual orientation is biological, a choice or, most likely, some combination of multiple factors, says Clinton Anderson, PhD, director of APA's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns Office.
"The evidence suggests that reducing prejudice toward one group will have a positive benefit on society in a broader way than just improving the conditions for that particular group," he says.
Despite the letter and opposition from human rights groups and governments worldwide, Museveni signed the bill into law in February. Still, the letter was fruitful because it mobilized a global community of psychologists around an important human rights issue, says Sharon Horne, PhD, an associate professor of counseling and school psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston who serves as one of APA's two representatives to the International Psychology Network on LGBTI issues and advised APA on the letter. Seventy-seven countries, including many in Africa and the former Soviet Union, for example, criminalize same-sex sexual acts with terms of imprisonment and even the death penalty, she says.
"Using our body of science to raise awareness and advocate for LGBT people's mental health around the world is really important," Horne says, noting that in many countries, LGBTI rights are backsliding rather than moving forward. "This is the time."
In addition to APA, the letter was signed by the Association of Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Psychologies Europe; the Colombian Psychological Society; the Guatemalan Psychological Association; the Hong Kong Psychological Society; the Hungarian Psychological Association; the Interamerican Society of Psychology; the International Union of Psychological Science; and the Psychological Society of South Africa.
To read the letter, go to APA's Public Interest Directorate.
— Anna Miller
