Mental Health Expert Testifies Proposition 8 Harms Gays And Lesbians

Yesterday the Proposition 8 trial being held in San Francisco saw expert testimony from Professor Ilan H. Meyer, an expert in mental health issues among gays, lesbians and bisexuals from Columbia University. Called by the team representing the same sex couples who brought the case to court, the move was to try and prove that the gay marriage ban was a form of prejudice that would cause gays and lesbians to be more likely to suffer from mental health issues such as mood disorders and substance abuse.

And the testimony that Meyer gave acted to do just that with the Professor testifying that Proposition 8 “sends a message that gay relationships are not respected, that they are of secondary value if they are of any value at all,”. He also added that by putting the gay marriage ban in place the state of California was acting to send out a public message that it was OK “to designate gay people as a different class of people in terms of their intimate relationships.”

Asked about the testimony of the same sex couples at the beginning of the case, Meyer said that the content had shown the feelings of both rejection and anxiety that are not uncommon to find with gays and lesbians because of the discrimination they feel, and acknowledged that this could also be found from something as minor as form filling where the lack of a category to describe their relationship could act to feel like some kind of “social disapproval,”.

Focusing on one particular witness, Kristin M. Perry, who is also one of the plaintiffs, he said that her description of how everyday life with brought decisions of whether or not to conceal her sexual orientation and how she found the constant worry “exhausting” acted as an example of how the concealment of one’s sexual orientation for fear of rejection was “damaging and stressful.”

In relation to questions about a federal government report which says that gay male adolescents are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide and that gays and lesbian are more vulnerable than heterosexuals to depression and substance abuse, Meyer said “Most gay men and lesbians are not disordered, but there is an excess in that population as compared to heterosexuals,”.

Acknowledging under cross-examination that he had contributed to the Proposition 8 campaign, the Proposition 8 lawyer also raised the issue to him and the court that it could not be said that these studies about mental health problems were definitive in their findings.