The American Psychological Association (APA) has created a task force to promote “consensual non-monogamous relationships” (CNM) and a petition seeking legal protected class status of individuals with multiple sex partners.

Call for volunteers! @Div44cnm is excited to announce that we are accepting applications for an LGBTQIA+ Resources co-lead, and a communications coordinator. Applications are due by July 30th. Find out more here: https://t.co/eCJrzJ8IJ4 #APA #polyamory #cnm #volunteer #LGBTQIA — APA Division 44 Consensual Non-monogamy Task Force (@Div44CNM) July 8, 2019

The task force, whose first Facebook post appeared in May 2018, hopes to promote “awareness and inclusivity about consensual non-monogamy and diverse expressions of intimate relationships,” including “people who practice polyamory, open relationships, swinging, relationship anarchy and other types of ethical non-monogamous relationships.”

APA’s division on sexual orientation and gender diversity created the task force whose goal is to “generate research, create resources, and advocate for the inclusion of consensually non-monogamous relationships in four areas: 1) basic and applied research, 2) education and training; 3) psychological practice, and 4) public interest.”

Dr. Andre Van Mol, a physician in Redding, California who co-chairs the committee on adolescent sexuality for the American College of Pediatricians, told the Christian Post the task force “is the entirely expected and predicted consequence of what happens when ideology replaces science.”

“The APA is yet again showing us that they are a professional guild and not a scientific organization,” Van Mol added. “Their sexuality divisions have long since been taken over by extremists. Unless parents push back, it won’t be long before this will be taught to our children in school with the usual emotional blackmail that to do otherwise is to stigmatize.”

“Our team of 85+ professionals is currently working on 12 initiatives,” states the task force, though the initiatives appear to be on a private website.

The task force is headed by Heath Schechinger, a counseling psychologist at University of California, Berkeley, and Amy Moors, a professor at Chapman University in California and a fellow at the Kinsey Institute.

Moors and Schechinger are co-authors of a 2017 paper titled “Unique and Shared Relationship Benefits of Consensually Non-Monogamous and Monogamous Relationships”

“Finding love and/or sexual intimacy is a central part of most people’s life experience,” states the task force. “However, the ability to engage in desired intimacy without social and medical stigmatization is not a liberty for all. This Task Force seeks to address the needs of people who practice consensual non-monogamy, including their intersecting marginalized identities.”

The task force notes its current projects include “a fact sheet about consensual non-monogamy, brochures for healthcare providers, a reading list for educators, practice recommendations for therapists, and adding consensual non-monogamy as a search term on mainstream therapist locator websites.”

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement the APA division’s task force “is more evidence that the American Psychological Association has lost it way.”

“The same people who want to deny counseling for people with unwanted same-sex desires or confusion also want to promote sexual anarchy and make ‘open relationships’ a protected class,” he added. “It’s time to call out the APA for its unscientific bias that is harmful to people.”