Are the out for children of gay, lbian, or bisexual parents general the same as those for heterosexual parents? That ntroversial qutn is discsed here a tailed review of the social science lerature three parts: (1) stabily of same-sex parental relatnships, (2) child ou …
Contents:
WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?
The prev edn, which was tled Lbian and Gay Parentg: A Rource for Psychologists (1995) was the succsor to a publitn tled Lbian Parents and Their Children: A Rource Paper for Psychologists that was jotly produced by CLGBC and CWP 1991. Unlike heterosexual parents and their children, however, lbian and gay parents and their children are often subject to prejudice bee of their sexual orientatn that n turn judg, legislators, profsnals, and the public agast them, sometim rultg negative out, such as loss of physil ctody, rtrictns on visatn, and prohibns agast adoptn (ACLU Lbian and Gay Rights Project, 2002; Appell, 2003; Patterson, Fulcher, & Waright, 2002).
Startg wh the pneerg work of Mart and Lyon (1972), first-person and fictnalized scriptns of life lbian mother fai (e.g., Alpert, 1988; Clsen, 1985; Howey & Samuels, 2000; Julln, 1985; Mager, 1975; Perrelt, 1975; Pollock & Vghn, 1987; Rafk, 1990; Wells, 1997) and gay father fai (e.g., Gallucc, Gallucc, & Groff, 2002; Green, 1999; Men, 1995; Savage, 2000) have also bee available. As this summary will show, the rults of existg rearch parg lbian and gay parents to heterosexual parents and children of lbian and gay parents to children of heterosexual parents are que clear: Common stereotyp are not supported by the data. Recent rearch on lbian and gay adults has drawn on populatn-based sampl (e.g., Cochran, 2001), and rearch on the offsprg of lbian and gay parents has begun to employ the same approach (e.g., Golombok, Perry, Burston, Murray, Mooney-Somers, Stevens, & Goldg, 2003; Waright, Rsell, & Patterson, 2004).
The relevance of this cricism has been greatly rced as rearch has expand to explore life a wir array of lbian mother and gay father fai (many of which have never lived through the divorce of a heterosexual uple), and as newer studi beg to clu a wir array of ntrol groups. Other cricisms have been that most studi have been based on relatively small sampl, that there have been difficulti wh asssment procr employed some studi, and that the classifitn of parents as lbian, gay, or heterosexual has been problematic.