同性婚姻之健康促進

Same-Sex Marriage for Health Promotion

自2015年以來，台灣已有多個縣市開放同性伴侶戶政註記。2016年12月26日，婚姻平權法案完成立法院司法法制委員會審查，若該法案通過三讀，台灣將成為亞洲第一個同性婚姻合法的國家。西方醫學史中，同性戀曾被錯歸於疾病，直到1973年，美國精神醫學會聲明同性戀的疾病化是缺乏實證的，因此將其從精神疾病中移除，所謂矯正性取向的「轉化治療」亦被譴責。儘管經歷去病化，污名與偏見仍持續造成性少數者的壓力、焦慮、憂鬱、霸凌、甚至自殺事件，對於兒少傷害尤深。基於實證研究結論，眾多專業醫療組織皆曾發表聲明支持同性婚姻、也支持同性家長撫養小孩的權利，肯定同性婚姻合法化是平等正義與健康促進的具體展現，亦可有效增進性少數者的心理健康。

Since 2015, several counties/cities in Taiwan have begun allowing same-sex couples to register as partners at household registration offices. On 26 December 2016, the Legislature's Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee completed and passed its examination of the same-sex marriage bills. If they pass the third reading, it would make Taiwan the first country in Asia to allow same-sex marriage. Medicine once considered homosexuality as an illness based on wrong theories. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association concluded there was no scientific evidence that homosexuality was psychopathologic and removed it from the list of mental disorders. Furthermore, so-called “conversion therapies” which claim to change one’s sexual orientation is contraindicated. However, stigma and prejudice toward homosexuality still lead to stress, anxiety, depression, bullying, even suicide among sexual minorities, especially children and adolescents. Plenty of medical organizations support same-sex marriage as being advantageous to the mental health of sexual minorities and support legal recognition of the right for same-sex couples to marry, adopt and co-parent according to evidence-based studies. It is considered that same-sex marriage should be accepted both as a matter of justice and health promotion.