For Australian medical practitioners who want to sign the petition to the AMA to retract its Position Statement on Marriage Equality:

Your name and details will not be shared or made public. If you consent for your title and name to be used as a signatory on future correspondence between the working group and the AMA, please indicate below. If you do not want your name included in any further letter to the AMA, please indicate below, and your name will be noted under the category of ‘private signatories’.

In our view, the Australian Medical Association’s Position Statement on Marriage Equality has misled politicians and the public:

  • On the crucial question of harm to children of same-sex parents, the AMA misrepresents the science by asserting publically that no peer-reviewed evidence of harm exists while acknowledging privately that it does.

Additionally:

  • On the alleged link between ‘marriage equality’ and LGBT health, the AMA violates academic standards by making an unequivocal claim based on poor-quality evidence without considering contrary facts.
  • On the alleged link between ‘marriage equality’ and LGBT access to healthcare,  the AMA relies on evidence from America that is irrelevant to Australia.
  • On the emotive assertion that “tragic consequences in medical emergencies” will occur if we don’t have ‘marriage equality’, the AMA uses specious evidence and false legal argument.

The Position Statement is fatally flawed, not least by its poor scholarship. It is unworthy of the Australian Medical Association and we call for its immediate and public retraction.