Episode 2: The APA Brief

 Hey everyone! I hope you all have had an amazing week. Quick update on myself: I am doing great up here at BYUI. I love it so much and have met so many fun people. I'm loving living with my friends and taking care of myself. I also am loving all of my classes.

Okay. Let's get started. So, this week we were assigned to study a brief that was authorized by the APA (American Psychological Association) in 2005 to help pass a law on same sex marriage. This particular brief was research claiming the following, "Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.". I'm going to be honest; I was pretty hesitant about this assignment being a child of a gay parent and having experienced some not very pleasant encounters from other LDS members about this. I get a little defensive on what I believe on LGBTQ+ topics, because I believe that God commanded us to love one another as he has loved us. This being said I don't believe talking slander, saying negative things, laughing at, making offensive or possibly offensive jokes, telling someone they are wrong for being themselves or not allowed to love as "loving one another" at all. Yet, I see it all the time. I think it shows cowardice. Anyway, as we were studying the brief, we found so many flaws in the research. We found enough flaws to easily prove that it was incorrect. Now, if the research was flawed so obviously, why did the APA pass it? We talked about the numbers and facts that we had found but I don't think the numbers had anything to do with it. I think it's about the people. I believe they authorized it because it was an easy way to include the people. Inclusion of everyone is becoming more relevant every single day in our world, and we are living in society of cancel culture, where if you don't believe in including everyone, you will be cancelled.

I'm sure there will be more on this next week, but this is what I've gotten from it so far, and if you don't agree with me that's perfectly fine, I would love to hear your thoughts. I am posting the link to the APA Brief for anyone that is curious. I hope you have a great week.