5 Gay Parentg Myths | HowStuffWorks

Contents:

• LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
• KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
• GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS: WHAT IS THE BIG AL?*
• GAY PARENTS AS GOOD AS STRAIGHT ON
• STUDY OF GAY PARENTG DRAWS CRICISM
• WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?
• DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS
• SOCLOGY: STUDY EXAM GENR ROL OF CHILDREN WH GAY PARENTS
• GAY AND LBIAN PARENTG: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THEM AND METHODOLOGIL STRATEGI OF BRAZILIAN REARCH
• GAY PARENTS
• 5 GAY PARENTG MYTHS

LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

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).

KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS

Three ncerns have historilly been associated wh judicial cisn makg ctody ligatn and public polici erng foster re and adoptn: the belief that lbians and gay men are mentally ill, that lbians are ls maternal than heterosexual women, and that lbians' and gay men's relatnships wh sexual partners leave ltle time for ongog parent-child teractns (ACLU Lbian and Gay Rights Project, 2002; Falk, 1989, 1994; Patterson et al., 2002; Patterson & Reddg, 1996). There is no reliable evince that homosexual orientatn per se impairs psychologil functng, although the social and other circumstanc which lbians and gay men live, cludg exposure to wispread prejudice and discrimatn, often e acute distrs (Cochran, 2001; Freedman, 1971; Gonsrek, 1991; Hart et al., 1978; Hooker, 1957; Meyer, 2003; Reiss, 1980). A recent study of 256 lbian and gay parent fai found that, ntrast to patterns characterizg the majory of Amerin parents, very few lbian and gay parents reported any e of physil punishment (such as spankg) as a disciplary technique; stead, they were likely to report e of posive techniqu such as reasong (Johnson & O'Connor, 2002).

GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS: WHAT IS THE BIG AL?*

Certaly, rearch has found no reasons to believe lbian mothers or gay fathers to be unf parents (Armto, 2002; Barret & Robson, 1990; Bigner & Bozett, 1990; Bigner & Jabsen, 1989a, 1989b; Bos et al., 2003, 2004; Bozett, 1980, 1989; Patterson, 1997; Patterson & Chan, 1996; Sbordone, 1993; Tasker & Golombok, 1997; Victor & Fish, 1995; Wton, 1991). Three aspects of sexual inty are nsired the rearch: genr inty, which ncerns a person's self-intifitn as male or female; genr-role behavr, which ncerns the extent to which a person's activi, occupatns, and the like are regard by the culture as mascule, feme, or both; and sexual orientatn, which refers to a person's choice of sexual partners, who may be homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972; Ste, 1993). Subjects evaluated vigt pictg eher a gay male uple or heterosexual uple and their adopted son along the dimensns of parentg abily, gree to which the child's problems were attributable to the parental relatnship, distrs of the child (cludg genr and sexual inty nfn), and the extent to which ctody reassignment was perceived to be beneficial.

GAY PARENTS AS GOOD AS STRAIGHT ON

A review of rearch on children of lbian and gay parents intifi some of the sourc of diversy wh lbian and gay parentg muni / prent rearch on those who beme parents the ntext of heterosexual relatnships, before g out as lbian or gay / scribe studi of lbians who beme parents after g out [prent] rearch on children born the ntext of heterosexual relatnships... The amework foc on (1) whether selectn effects produced by homophobia acunt for associatns between parental sexual orientatns and child out; (2) the role of parental genr vis-à-vis sexual orientatn fluencg children's genr velopment; and (3) the relatnship between parental sexual orientatns and children's sexual preferenc and behavrs. Although is clear that homosexualy is not and of self related to psychopathology, there are persistent suggtns that the particular strs endured by gay men and lbians, pecially adolcence and young adulthood, may e an upsurge attempted suici and perhaps chemil abe, perhaps temporary or perhaps a segment of homosexuals.

The paper foc on (a) methodologil problems rearch on homosexualy; (b) studi parg adjtment levels of male homosexuals and male heterosexuals, effemate and noneffemate male homosexuals, and female homosexuals and female heterosexuals; (c) the relatnship between gree of homosexualy and adjtment; (d) homosexual subculture; and (e) the relatnship between homosexualy and psychopathology. (From the chapter) social science theory and empiril rearch to scribe and expla psychologil heterosexism the US today / addrs the attudal and belief ponents of psychologil heterosexism, wh special attentn to gnive and motivatnal procs / behavral aspects of psychologil heterosexism-specifilly, acts of vlence agast lbians and gay men-are discsed / the nsequenc of psychologil heterosexism are nsired. (From the chapter) child ctody / sexual orientatn and liftyle on their children / ctodial gay fathers / children's reactns to havg a gay father / social ntrol strategi / boundary ntrol fluencg factors / mutualy / father's reactns / protective strategi / role molg / children's velopment of sexual inty / homonegative reactns of children.

This text featur iativ to improve the procs of clil re for gay and lbian dividuals and their fai, as well as the muny as a whole; mon scenars enuntered clil practice, along wh a discsn of their meang and re; and explic suggtns for child health profsnals to direct efforts to change the ntext of medil tn.

STUDY OF GAY PARENTG DRAWS CRICISM

Divid to three segments, the book tak an unflchg and entirely new look at motherg: "New Lsons" exam the way which sons of lbians grow up to be different men; "Makg a Fay" looks at fay nstcts and "Facg Loss" reveals the heart-breakg realy that many women have had to nont when their fai were threatened by homophobic urts and tradns. (From the chapter) gay fatherhood has emerged to public awarens and brought qutns / who are gay fathers, and how do they bee parents / what kd of parents do gay men make, and how do their children velop / what special challeng and strs do gay fathers and their children face daily life, and how do they pe wh them / what n acquatance wh gay fathers and their children offer to the unrstandg of parenthood, child velopment, and fay life / although rearch leratur bearg on such qutns are que new and relatively sparse, existg studi addrs some issu raised by the existence of gay fathers. “WHEREAS, The legislative protectn afford to children of parents homosexual relatnships vari om state to state, wh some stat enactg or nsirg legislatn sanctng -parent or send parent adoptn by partners of the same sex, several stat clg to nsir legislatn, and at least one state altogether banng adoptn by the send parent; and.

“The Amerin Psychologil Associatn plor all public and private discrimatn such areas as employment, hog, public acmodatn, and licensg agast those who engage or have engaged homosexual activi and clar that no burn of proof of such judgment, pacy, or reliabily shall be placed upon the dividuals greater than that imposed on any other persons. “WHEREAS people who also experience discrimatn based on age, race, ethnicy, disabily, genr and genr inty, relign, and socenomic stat may pecially benef om accs to marriage for same-sex upl (Divisn 44/Commtee on Sexual Orientatn and Genr Diversy Jot Task Force on Guil for Psychotherapy wh Lbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients, 2000);.

WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?

Three key fdgs stood out this study: children of married, oppose-sex parents have a high graduatn rate pared to the others; children of lbian fai have a very low graduatn rate pared to the others; and children the other four typ of livg arrangements (mon law marriage, gay uple, sgle mother, and sgle father) are siar to each other and fall between the extrem of married heterosexual parents and lbian upl. The women (whose average age both groups was 29) wh gay or bisexual fathers had difficulty wh adult attachment issu three areas: (1) they were ls fortable wh closens and timacy; (2) they were ls able to tst and pend on others; and (3) they experienced more anxiety relatnships pared to the women raised by heterosexual fathers (and mothers). The study is noteworthy for several reasons: (1) his study sample was large, reprentative, and populatn-based (not a small, self-selected group); (2) Regnes studied the rpons of adult children rather than askg same-sex parents to scribe how their young pennt children are dog; and (3) he was able to draw parisons on up to 80 measur for children who had lived wh (or had) parents who fell to one of eight tegori—tact fai wh both blogil parents who were married to each other, lbian mothers, gay fathers, heterosexual sgle parents, parents who later divorced, habg parents, parents who adopted the rponnt, and other (such as a ceased parent).

4) as prevalent among children wh same-sex parents than the general populatn, after ntrollg for age, sex, ethnicy, and parent soc-enomic stat (Sulls 2015b) n one rencile the signifint fdgs wh the wily publicized studi showg no harmful effects to children who have, or have lived wh, lbian or gay parents? For example, 2005, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) issued an official brief on lbian and gay parentg, which clud this assertn: “Not a sgle study has found children of lbian and gay parents to be disadvantaged any signifint rpect relative to children of heterosexual parents” (Amerin Psychologil Associatn 2005).

DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS

The thor remend further flaws exist the vast majory of studi published before 2012 on this subject (Marks 2012) cludg the fact that they relied upon small, nonreprentative sampl that are not reprentative of children typil homosexual fai the Uned major studi, published by Gartrell and Bos (2010) and Biblarz and Stacey (2010), are often ced by gay activists and extensively the media. Includg such children among those labeled as havg been “raised by same-sex parents” is so misleadg as to be accurate, sce the children were generally raised by oppose-sex fai and only later, after a fay disptn, did they live hoeholds wh one or more gay parent(s), and only rarely did two parents of the same sex, a stable, long-term relatnship, actually raise the children together. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTDebate on a Study Examg Gay ParentsJune 11, 2012Young adults om broken hom which a parent had had a same-sex relatnship reported mostly more psychologil and social problems their current liv than peers om other fai that had experienced divorce and other disptns, a new study has found, stirrg bter bate among partisans on gay study unted parents as gay or lbian by askg participants whether their parents had ever had a same-sex relatnship; the parents may not have intified themselv as gay or lbian.

Gay-rights groups attacked the study, fanced by nservative foundatns, as biased and poorly done even before s publitn on Sunday the journal Social Science outsi experts, by and large, said the rearch was rigoro, providg some of the bt data yet parg out for adult children wh a gay parent wh those wh heterosexual parents.

SOCLOGY: STUDY EXAM GENR ROL OF CHILDREN WH GAY PARENTS

This study is the first to tly bridge the gap our knowledge left by prev studi that have shown the benefs of beg raised by a married mother and father (but which did not clu direct parisons wh homosexual parents), and prev studi on homosexual parents (which, however, did not e large, reprentative sampl). Sce most of the media attentn has foced on the parison between children of homosexual parents and children of "tact blogil fai" (that is, children raised by their own blogil mother and father who are married to one another), crics argue that the children of homosexuals did worse only bee most of them this study had experienced stabily their fay stcture (e. However, more and more, lbians, gays, and bisexuals create their fay arrangements and have received visibily and support, maly due to the legal and polil regnn of civil marriage and the adoptn among same-sex upl Lat Ameri (Lira & Morais, 2017; Ryan & Berkowz, 2009) 1995, Brazil announced the Registered Civil Partnership-PCR bill No.

Although procr such as terviews and clil observatns are tly relevant environments dited to fay health, standardized stments for asssg lbian and gay parentg may have some advantag ntexts such as psychotherapy, physil and mental health re, social, and legal assistance (Costa et al., 2013a, b) stments provi evince regardg the needs, fenc, and loss of the fay system and n strengthen the nsistency and validy of the fdgs towards stutns foced on the re and promotn of fay health (Lira & Morais, 2018; Parker et al., 2018).

GAY AND LBIAN PARENTG: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THEM AND METHODOLOGIL STRATEGI OF BRAZILIAN REARCH

Also, the discsn regardg the typ of evince-based stments and/or fay terventns n further promote an crease the qualy of life and well-beg of lbian and gay parents and their children through the preparatn and planng of asssments and fay health procr that are more sensive to the real mands of the fay nfiguratns (Lira & Morais, 2018; Parker et al., 2018; Wright & Masten, 2015).

Incln CreriaArticl were eligible for cln the review acrdg to the followg creria: (a) be an empiril article of quantative, qualative, or multi-method character wh full-text available; (b) havg as rearch participants cisgenr gay or lbian parents and/or their children; (c) published the perd between 2009 and October 2019; (d) English and Portugue; (e) alg wh aspects of cisgenr gay and lbian parentg; and (f) beg a study nducted wh Brazilian participants or wh Brazilian ntext—produced or about Brazil or a Brazilian regn/cy. Afterwards, we analyzed abstracts, and we nsired the excln creria listed below: duplite articl; book chapters; news; technil documents; ments; other lerature reviews (systematic and narrative); dissertatns and th; and studi whose objective alt wh the theme of homosexualy but did not relate to fai or parentg. We cid not to clu systematic reviews and theoretil articl or those that alt wh the attus of the general populatn or profsnals regardg lbian and gay parentg the rp of analysis, le wh the objective of this study, which is to characterize the scientific lerature as regards fai head by gay or lbian parents, terms of objectiv, methods, them, and rults.

Concerng the, rearchers nducted most studi wh female parental upl or lbian parents a stable relatnship, married, or habg (n = 11), and among the, some also clud divorced and remarried lbian parents (n = 4), and male parental upl or married (Mach, 2016; Tombolato et al., 2018; Vule et al., 2015) or sgle gay parent (Amazonas et al., 2013). Only five articl ed verifitn procr as a way to enhance the credibily/tstworths of the study, such as (a) peer review or briefg, through regular meetgs wh the rearch team apart om the terviews (Lúc et al., 2018); (b) data triangulatn, through the bed analysis of data om a survey regardg scientific and legal aspects RT, data om RT webs (Brazil and USA), and data om terviews wh RT health profsnals (Mach & Couto, 2014), and also, through the analysis of separated terviews wh lbian or gay parents and wh their children (Sátiro & Barr, 2016); (c) external ds/ter-rater reliabily, through analysis of terviews wh the LGBTQ + NGO team asi om the dividual terviews (Mqua & Pavia, 2015); and (d) prolonged engagement the field, through the analysis of field diari addn to the terviews (Vule et al., 2015).

GAY PARENTS

We did not asss any article as beg too poor for cln; tails are Table 2 Qualy asssmentFull size tableThemWe intified four broad them ncerng Brazilian qualative studi regardg fai head by gays and lbian parents: (a) Fay nceptns: the historil importance of the blogil bond and the ia of affectn as a means by which the parents and their children -nstct a sense of fay; (b) parentg rout and their repercsns for the uple and/or fay relatns; (c) prejudice agast sexual diversy, social support, and the impact on fay relatnships; (d) lerary and media reprentatns regardg gay and lbian parentg. The them are not mutually exclive; they overlap and teract, reflectg the relatnal nature of the fdgs and the teractns among each part of the fay system (parental uple, parent–child relatns, sexual, and genr diversy) Conceptns: The Historil Importance of the Blogil Bond and the Ia of Affectn as a Means by Which The Parents and Their Children Co-nstct a Sense of FayThe sense of fay for gay and lbian parents and their children is nceived the studi clud this systematic review by the affective bonds that are tablished between their members, not by blogil kship, nor by the sexual orientatn of the parental uple.

Parentg Rout and Their Repercsns for the Couple and/or Fay RelatnsConcerng the parentg rout ed by the study participants, we noticed that the majory of the rearch wh female upl and lbian parents explored the experience of parenthood through assisted RT, while the studi wh gay parents showed the nstutn of their fai through adoptn.

Among other reasons, due to the fear of the bond that may be tablished, through pregnancy, between the surrogate and the child (Amazonas et al., 2013; Mach, 2016; Mach & Couto, 2014; Tombolato et al., 2019) regard to the adoptn by gay or lbian parents, studi showed that the nstctn of the feelg of parenthood n happen both daily child-rearg or at the first moment they see the child and that emotnal bonds are strengthened across time livg together (Amazonas et al., 2013).

5 GAY PARENTG MYTHS

The data suggted that gay and lbian parents ga greater social acceptance when they meet some heteronormative standards (Tombolato et al., 2018, 2019) prejudice that such parents have experienced due to their non-heterosexual orientatns, pecially om their fai of orig, was also manifted the form of non-acceptance of their parenthood or emotnal distancg. G., lbian and gay parents), that uld have few referenc related to the subject treated the study (Gil, 2008) discs the rults, we anized this sectn reflectg first on samplg and the “Accs to Lbian and Gay Parents Fay Rearch, ” which n be hampered or facilated by the rearch participants, the methodology, or rearcher(s), pecially nsirg Brazilian cultural ntext. Fally, we brg the importance to reflect on “Fay Conceptns and Lbian and Gay Parentg Rout: Brazilian Cultural Specifici” to end this sectn potg out the relevance of nductg rearch and thkg about methodology a culturally sensive to Lbian and Gay Parents Fay RearchWh regard to this aspect, acrdg to Denz and Lln (2005), at the begng of vtigatns of the LGBTQ + liv the twenty-first century, rearchers found difficult to fd participants this tegory who were willg to reveal their secrets, fearg stigmatizatn and social punishments om that time.

The two procs that pose methodologil tegry n be related to participant selectn, samplg, data llectn strategi, data analytic strategi, verifitn procr, and broar aspects of the rearch, such as the formulatn of rearch qutns or the articulatn of implitns (Levt et al., 2017, 2018) Conceptns and Lbian and Gay Parentg Rout: Brazilian Cultural SpecificiThe studi clud this systematic review dite that the formatn of a fay wh gay and lbian parents Brazil is part of a plex social and cultural procs and is based, maly, on the var transformatns about the fay and sexualy that have happened recent s, pecially Wtern untri (Vpucci, 2014). While the cisn to unrgo RT procr may mean eedom of choice for lbian and gay parents, such choic are also regulated by the enomic system a ntext of medilizatn (Pont et al., 2015, 2017; Vule et al., 2015, 2017) sperm dtry works wh a sgle ial of wtern masculy which the approval of (paid) donor selectn is based not only upon his health profile but also how closely he rrponds to the ial: tall, slim, handsome, well-ted, and athletic. At the same time, also reaffirms the ial of romantic love, sce havg a child n be seen as a rult of the sire to eternalize the uple relatnship, displacg the third party: the semen provir (Mach, 2014; Mach & Couto, 2014) the studi analyzed, gay parents also exprsed ncern that the optn for other arrangements ed to accs parenthood may create vulnerabili for the uple and the child, for fear that the strength of blogil ti will overlap wh the social bond or legal provisn.