Over the past few s the number of children growg up LGBTQ-parent fai has creased dramatilly wh the ntext of shiftg socpolil and legal climat around the world, more favourable attus toward diverse fay forms, and expand accs to assisted reproductn technology and adoptn (Goldberg & Conron, 2018). Among diverse LGBTQ-parent fay forms, lbian and gay stepfay arrangements formed post heterosexual relatnship (PHR) dissolutn likely reprent the most mon formatn (Tasker & Lavenr-Stott, 2020). Contrary to prevailg expectatns, early studi wh mothers who me out as lbians showed that they were jt as likely to have good mental health and posive relatnships wh their children as were heterosexual mothers, and that their children were no more likely to show emotnal and behavral difficulti, poor performance at school, or atypil genr role behavr than were children wh heterosexual parents (Patterson, 2017; Tasker, 2010) wh rearch on lbian stepfay arrangements, what we currently know about parentg and the adjtment of children whose parents are a sexual and/or a genr mory is still maly limed to lbian-parent fai through donor sematn (Bos & Gartrell, 2020). Planned lbian-parent fai were also created by adoptn (Farr et al., 2020), by sexual terurse wh a man who would not be a father to the child and by elective -parentg, whereby the mo...
Contents:
- THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV
- KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
- ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
- GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
- LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
- PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE
- WHERE WE STAND: GAY AND LBIAN PARENTS
- WHEN YOUR CHILD IS GAY
- FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
- NAVIGATG ONE SON'S G OUT N BE A BIG AL. FOR PARENTS WH SEVERAL GAY CHILDREN, N BE OVERWHELMG
THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV
Jot statement om advocy groups lls study a "flawed, misleadg, and scientifilly unsound paper that seeks to disparage lbian and gay parents;" thor fends his study * gay family children *
Allison, raised Connecticut and Vermont by her mom and her mom's partner: “As soon as I found out [my new school] had a gay-straight alliance I jt— was amazg, to know that there are other kids my age—to realize that they were supportive of LGBT people.
KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
The days, gay parents are no novelty. * gay family children *
In a jot statement om the Fay Equaly Council, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Freedom to Marry, and the Gay and Lbian Alliance agast Defamatn (GLAAD), advot lled the study a "flawed, misleadg, and scientifilly unsound paper that seeks to disparage lbian and gay parents.
‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
Inclus a summary of rearch fdgs on lbian mothers, gay fathers and their children, an annotated biblgraphy of the published psychologil lerature and addnal rourc relevant to lbian and gay parentg. * gay family children *
The days, gay parents are no novelty: We see them strollg through our neighborhoods, participatg our PTA meetgs, and, perhaps most notably, appearg on our TV screens: Mchell and Cam, fathers to Lily, on the ratgs smash Morn Fay; Glee’s Sue Sylvter, expectant mom to a baby nceived wh an as-yet-unrevealed sperm donor, and Rachel’s dads, played wh humor and grace by Jeff Goldblum and Brian Stok.
Though this media mastreamifitn of gay parentg is a relatively new phenomenon, for s, gay parents have had children all sorts of fay nfiguratns—whether through adoptn, prev heterosexual relatnships, or, creasgly, by choosg to have blogil offsprg g vro, surrogate, and other methods.
Earlier this month, when Print Obama announced his support for same sex marriage days after North Carola voted to ban , he changed the nversatn nsirably by argug that ncern for children is a reason to support, rather than oppose, gay marriage. ” His support for gay marriage was self a landmark turn, but jt as notable was s direct affirmatn of gay upl as parents, which served to rebut the standard argument agast gay marriage—namely, that risks the well-beg of children and the fay. Much of the ncern for the children of gay parents has centered specifilly on boys, who as a group have seemed, pecially recent years, prey to nfn, rentment, and stctivens—somethg creded to the risg proportn of mal beg reared fatherls hom.
GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
Parents of gay children may go through an adjtment perd when they fd out their child is gay, but there is support for parents of gay children. * gay family children *
And the ways anti-LGBTQ laws harm the kids specifilly are a gapg hole our natnal nversatn about the impact of legislatn like Florida’s recently implemented Parental Rights Edutn law — what crics have lled the “Don’t Say Gay” law — which lims discsn of LGBTQ issu krgarten through the third the dghter of a gay man, I am vastated to image what would have been like to keep my father’s inty a secret at school.
LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
typ-of-fai~Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) discs adoptn to gay and lbian dividual or fay hoeholds. * gay family children *
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.
PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE
Stanford physicians have published the first study of gay men's experienc wh g assisted reproductive technology to have children. * gay family children *
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). 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. 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.
WHERE WE STAND: GAY AND LBIAN PARENTS
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. An expert readg of the Sarantakos article reveals that certa characteristics of s methodology and sample are highly likely to have skewed the rults and renred them an valid ditor of the well-beg of children raised by gay and lbian parents at least three rpects:.
The children raised by gay and lbian parents experienced unually high levels of extreme social ostracism and overt hostily om other children and parents, which probably acunted for the former's lower levels of teractn and social tegratn wh peers (see pp. Some nonscientific anizatns have attempted to nvce urts that there is an actual scientific dispute this area by cg rearch performed by Pl Cameron as supportg the existence of fics gay and lbian parents or their children pared to heterosexual parents or their children. 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).
WHEN YOUR CHILD IS GAY
Many years ago, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed "homosexualy" om s list of mental disorrs, statg that "homosexualy per se impli no impairment judgment, stabily, reliabily, or general social or votnal pabili" (Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, 1974).
In 1975, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn took the same posn and urged all mental health profsnals to help dispel the stigma of mental illns that had long been associated wh homosexual orientatn (Amerin Psychologil Associatn, 1975). The cisn to remove homosexual orientatn om the list of mental disorrs reflects extensive rearch nducted over three s showg that homosexual orientatn is not a psychologil maladjtment (Gonsrek, 1991; Hart, Roback, Ttler, Wez, Walston, & McKee, 1978; Reiss, 1980). 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).
FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
Beliefs that lbian and gay adults are not f parents likewise have no empiril foundatn (Anrssen, Amlie, & Ytteroy, 2002; Brewaeys & van Hall, 1997; Parks, 1998; Patterson, 2000; Patterson & Chan, 1996; Perr, 2002; Stacey & Biblarz, 2001; Tasker, 1999; Victor & Fish, 1995). 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).
NAVIGATG ONE SON'S G OUT N BE A BIG AL. FOR PARENTS WH SEVERAL GAY CHILDREN, N BE OVERWHELMG
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). For stance, one such ncern is that children brought up by lbian mothers or gay fathers will show disturbanc genr inty and/or genr role behavr (Falk, 1989, 1994; Hchens & Kirkpatrick, 1985; Kleber, Howell, & Tibbs-Kleber, 1986; Patterson et al., 2002; Patterson & Reddg, 1996). For example, urts have exprsed fears that children the ctody of gay or lbian parents will be more vulnerable to mental breakdown, will exhib more adjtment difficulti and behavr problems, and will be ls psychologilly healthy than other children.
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). Although some children have scribed enunters wh anti-gay remarks om peers (Gartrell et al., 2005), young adult offsprg of divorced lbian mothers did not rell beg the targets of any more childhood teasg or victimizatn than did the offsprg of divorced heterosexual mothers (Tasker & Golombok, 1995, 1997). Studi of the relatnships wh adults among the children of lbian and gay parents have also rulted a generally posive picture (Brewaeys et al., 1997; Golombok et al., 1983; Harris & Turner, 1985/86; Kirkpatrick et al., 1981; Waright et al., 2004).