Gay Parents Do Not Warp Their Kids, Research Shows
Categories: Adoption, In The News, Amazing Parents
In her new book, "Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children," Abbie Goldberg argues that homosexual parents do not adversely affect their children. Credit: Amazon
Abbie Goldberg, an assistant professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., looked at gay parenting from the 1970s to the present in her book, "Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle."
"The sexual orientation of a parent has really little to do with their parenting," Goldberg tells USA Today.
Her research involved interviewing adoptive parents in 30 states. Interviewees included 30 to 35 male couples, 40 female couples and 50 to 60 straight couples. She talked with them three months before the adoption and three months after. Beginning her research in 2005, she has done two annual follow-ups so far.
Goldberg tells USA Today she found no appreciable difference between children from gay and straight parents in terms of their mental health, self esteem, life satisfaction, social skills or number of friends. She added children with gay parents are teased about their parents but don't experience more teasing overall.
And having gay parents doesn't make children gay themselves, she tells the newspaper. There is no indication in her research, she says, that suggests children's sexual preferences are determined by their parents.
Some don't agree. Sociologist Tim Biblarz of the University of Southern California tells USA Today that there have not been enough long-term, large-scale research projects to definitively say what effect the sexual orientation of parents has on children.
One thing is certain: More gay couples are having children. One of five male couples and one in three female couples have children, according to the U.S. Census. Only one in 20 male couples and one in five female couples had children in 1990.
The desire to raise and care for children seems to be an almost universal yearning among human beings.
"Gay men are just as likely to want to parent as straight men, but are less likely to parent because of the barriers in their way," she says.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Elizabeth 11-23-2009 @ 3:31PM
Well, it's nice to know that it's official, even though those of us who have gay friends have been saying this for years.
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Conservadick 11-23-2009 @ 4:09PM
@Elizabeth - Well, it's hardly "official" because it's only one study. However, it involves a substantial number of families and offers some welcome conclusions. A few more like this and a lot of us on the right might relax our gay marriage concerns.
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corey 11-23-2009 @ 5:21PM
I got to say I agree for some part but What I would be confusing is for the children who have the other biological parent involved, My daughter has me And my fiance but then her real mother and her girlfriend and that she is more convincing to be a man (no insult intended, shaved head mens cloths you know) seens to be kind of confusing towards her but she is 3 and time will tell i guess
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SKL 11-23-2009 @ 5:38PM
I'd be interested to know if there is any significant difference if they isolated the gender of the parents (2 males vs 2 females). Did they get into that?
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DAVID 11-23-2009 @ 7:29PM
So I guess it is normal couples that produce kids that are destined for crime, drugs and unsupervised sex.
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Kirsten 11-24-2009 @ 11:55AM
If anything I would think some conservative straight parents might make it hard for gay kids to come out, so they might not show up in the statistics for gay children. That might artificially show a lower rate of gay children born to straight parents.
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Rick 12-08-2009 @ 8:32PM
Research is full of unintelligent nonsense. What was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed for? The account let's us know that it was so bad that the men and young boys of the city came to Lot's house and wanted to have intercourse with the angels that had materialized as men to warn Lot to get out before the impending destruction. Can we believe a God that does not bend his principles one way or another would view it different today? What does the Apostle Paul say in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10?
"What! Do YOU not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom."
It makes it very clear how God feels about and will deal with that kind of people. Is it the family arrangement he designed? No it is not. They fit the description Paul wrote to the Ephesians in
Ephesians 4:19. "Having come to be past all moral sense, they gave themselves over to loose conduct to work uncleanness of every sort with greediness."
Isn't it a shame that even churches not only allow them to be ministers in the church but also perform same sex marriages. The book of 2 Corinthians says their end will be according to their works. Not a pretty picture. To say gay parents do not warp their children or influence their view of things is like saying straight parents do not influence their children. Any of us with common sense know better than that pile of nonsense. No, gays should not be allowed to adopt children and if parents have enough sense they will not allow their children to have close association with them.
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