Kids Can Thrive wh Gay Parents | Psychology Today

Contents:

• HOW TO DEAL WH HAVG GAY PARENTS
• WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS
• GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS: WHAT IS THE BIG AL?*
• DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS
• LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG
• GAY PARENTS AS GOOD AS STRAIGHT ON
• KIDS CAN THRIVE WH GAY PARENTS
• 10 THGS YOU’LL ONLY KNOW IF YOU’VE GROWN UP WH GAY PARENTS
• 5 GAY PARENTG MYTHS
• GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
• GAY PARENTS
• FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED
• ITALY BEGS REMOVG GAY MOTHERS OM CHILDREN’S BIRTH CERTIFIT
• THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV
• WHAT DO THE SCHOLARLY REARCH SAY ABOUT THE WELL-BEG OF CHILDREN WH GAY OR LBIAN PARENTS?
• ADVANTAG AND DISADVANTAG OF GAY ADOPTN AND GAY PARENTG
• 12 POPULAR CHILDREN’S TV SHOWS THAT HAVE GAY CHARACTERS
• HOW DO I DISCS BEG GAY WH MY 8-YEAR-OLD?
• PROS AND CONS FOR CHOOSG GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS COLORADO BY ADOPTN CHOIC OF COLORADO | JUN 11, 2021 | BLOG FACEBOOK TWTER GOOGLE+ PTERT GMAIL PROS AND CONS FOR CHOOSG GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS COLORADO
• 20/20: GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS
• STIGMA EXPERIENC, MENTAL HEALTH, PERCEIVED PARENTG COMPETENCE, AND PARENT–CHILD RELATNSHIPS AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND HETEROSEXUAL ADOPTIVE PARENTS THE UNED STAT
• DO GAY PARENTS HAVE AN AFFECT ON THEIR CHILDREN
• I HAVE GAY PARENTS

HOW TO DEAL WH HAVG GAY PARENTS

Children wh gay, lbian, transgenr or other sexual mory parents fare as well as, or better than, children wh parents of the oppose sex, acrdg to rearch published Monday BMJ Global Health, further unrmg a mon but unsupported argument agast equal marriage and adoptn as a growg number of stat enact laws curtailg LGBT+ rights. More than half of the kids adopted by gays and lbians had special report didn't pare the adoptn preferenc of gay upl directly wh those of heterosexual upl, said thor David Brodzsky, rearch director at the Instute and -edor of "Adoptn By Lbians and Gay Men: A New Dimensn of Fay Diversy" (Oxford Universy Prs, 2011). "When you thk about the 114, 000 children who are eed for adoptn who ntue to live foster re and who are not beg readily adopted, the goal is to crease the pool of available, terted and well-traed dividuals to parent the children, " Brodzsky addn, Brodzsky said, there's evince to suggt that gays and lbians are pecially acceptg of open adoptns, where the child retas some ntact wh his or her birth parents.

"Intertgly, we fd that a small percentage, but enough to be noteworthy, [of birth mothers] make a nsc cisn to place wh gay men, so they n be the only mother their child's life, " Brodzsky parentgRearch has shown that the kids of same-sex upl — both adopted and blogil kids — fare no worse than the kids of straight upl on mental health, social functng, school performance and a variety of other life-succs a 2010 review of virtually every study on gay parentg, New York Universy soclogist Judh Stacey and Universy of Southern California soclogist Tim Biblarz found no differenc between children raised hom wh two heterosexual parents and children raised wh lbian parents. "The dividuals feel like their perspectiv on fay, on genr, on sexualy have largely been enhanced by growg up wh gay parents, " Goldberg 33-year-old man wh a lbian mother told Goldberg, "I feel I'm a more open, well-round person for havg been raised a nontradnal fay, and I thk those that know me would agree.

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.

WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS

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).

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). 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.

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

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.

DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS

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. 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). 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). 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).

LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

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.

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...

GAY PARENTS AS GOOD AS STRAIGHT ON

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. 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.

KIDS CAN THRIVE WH GAY PARENTS

“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.

10 THGS YOU’LL ONLY KNOW IF YOU’VE GROWN UP WH GAY PARENTS

“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);. 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. Although adolcents and young adults reared by LGB parents are no more likely to self-intify as exclively lbian/gay than those reared by heterosexual parents, havg a lbian mother was associated wh a greater likelihood of nsirg or havg a same-sex relatnship, and more expansive, ls tegoril notns of sexualy.

5 GAY PARENTG MYTHS

For ee real time breakg news alerts sent straight to your box sign up to our breakg news emailsSign up to our ee breakg news emailsItaly has begun removg the nam of gay mothers om their children’s birth certifit, as part of the right-wg ernment’s crackdown on same-sex move after populist prime mister Grgia Meloni’s aln announced March that state agenci should no longer register the children of same-sex upl, a move that sparked protts Milan. 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. Social science rearch has documented the well-beg of children raised by same-genr parents, 1, 2 and many profsnal associatns that addrs parentg have endorsed nfince and optimism about gay or lbian parents raisg children, cludg the Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, Amic Pediatric Associatn, Amerin Medil Associatn, and Amerin Amy of Child and Adolcent Psychiatry.

mographic rmatn about the rponnt and his children;the method(s) by which the child(ren) joed the fay;whether the rponnt had faced barriers accsg pathways to parenthood; andwhether rponnts had been “ma to feel unfortable, exclud, shamed, hurt, or unwele” specific social ntexts bee of beg/havg a gay father (active stigma), or had “avoid var suatns bee of worry about people’s judgments” (anticipated stigma). We distributed a lk to the survey through targeted Facebook advertisg, an advertisement Gay Parent Magaze, Twter, Meetup groups, and direct ntacts wh lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) parentg groups, advocy anizatns, LGBT muny and cultural centers, surrogacy and adoptn agenci, and church groups throughout the Uned Stat.

GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?

To unrstand the fluence of the social environment on gay fathers and their children, we ed the “equaly ratgs” created by the Movement Advancement Project () based on each state’s laws for protectn of LGBT fai (eg, laws regardg adoptn and foster re by lbians and gay men, the availabily of legal domtic partnerships, civil unns, and civil marriage, regulatns about bullyg schools, etc). " Some parents may fear that if they tell their younger children that "gay" is what means when people of the same genr are attracted to each other that they will be forced to answer qutns about sexual relatns between same sex upl, but my experience that is rarely the se - don't occur to most kids that age to ask.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

It uld be the bt thg you ever ci for your child and the gay adoptive Baby Will Grow Up to be More UnrstandgUnfortunately, today, some people don’t support same-sex upl beg together, but havg your child have a same-sex uple as his or her adoptive parents, will allow them to grow up to this fay dynamic beg normalized.

Although rearch regardg microaggrsns experienced by sexual and genr mory persons is advancg (Fisher et al., 2019; Nadal, 2019), homophobic microaggrsns and their possible associatns wh dividual and fay out have not been specifilly examed (to our knowledge) among a sample of LG parents, let alone LG adoptive parents.

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

Among a sample of approximately 100 adoptive fai head by lbian, gay, and heterosexual parents, we explored associatns at two pots (about 5 years apart; when children were prchool-age and school-age, rpectively) among parent mental health symptoms, perceived parentg petence, perceived adoptn stigma, homonegative microaggrsns, and qualy of parent–child relatnships.

Based on our theoretil ameworks of fay and mory strs as well as some relevant existg rearch regardg sexual stigma and homonegative microaggrsns as related to LG dividual and parent out (Goldberg et al., 2011, 2019; Tornello et al., 2011; Wright and Wegner, 2012; Carone et al., 2017; Green et al., 2019), we also anticipated that greater mental health symptoms and lower petence, rpectively, would be associated wh more microaggrsns. Aligned wh some rearch ditg associatns between greater sexual stigma, fay strs, and child out (Bos and Gartrell, 2010; Vyncke et al., 2014; Crouch et al., 2017; Carone et al., 2018; Calzo et al., 2019), we also expected that homonegative microaggrsns experienced by LG parents would predict reports of lower parent–child relatnship qualy (acuntg for parent mental health symptoms, petence, and adoptn stigma) among their children.

Dpe prev work ditg that gay men may hold lower levels of perceived parentg efficy bee of ntextual factors such as homonegative microaggrsns and the stigma related to fatherhood broadly (Armto, 2002; Robson and Brewster, 2014), the gay fathers our sample did not report signifintly lower levels of perceived parentg petence than any other group. Although they did fd some ial differenc wh lbian and heterosexual women reportg greater petence than gay and heterosexual men prr to the adoptive placement of their child, by 3 months post-placement, gay fathers particular were characterized by the greatt creas perceived petence as pared to the other parent groups. Addnally, most of the adoptive parents this sample lived urban areas and therefore may have greater accs to LG-affirmg servic (Kkler and Goldberg, 2011; Goldberg et al., 2013), which may expla why no signifint differenc emerged stigma or homonegative microaggrsns by ast (East vers Wt) or urbanicy (ral vers urban).

GAY PARENTS

Intertgly, however, greater mental health symptoms were associated wh lower perceived parentg petence at both wav, which is nsistent wh earlier rearch wh adoptive lbian, gay, and heterosexual parent fai (Goldberg and Smh, 2009) and pots to unrlyg nnectns between dividual adjtment and parentg experienc that uld have important ramifitns for children’s velopment.

It is possible that LG parents who are experiencg current homonegative microaggrsns are also experiencg greater strs and emotnal dysregulatn as a rult, which uld terfere wh the qualy of parents’ relatnships wh their children; ed, Hatzenbuehler (2009) scrib how terpersonal relatnships are one doma which mory strs may have negative nsequenc through the effects of rultg psychologil distrs, gnive load, and physlogil strs. Wh specific regard to policy implitns, there are currently 11 US stat wh “relig eedom” or “relig exemptn” laws that create barriers to fosterg and adoptn for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) prospective or current parents (as well as for LGBTQ children and youth the foster re system awag placement; Movement Advancement Project, 2020). Patterson for the Amerin Psychologil Associatn found that the available data did not suggt higher rat of homosexualy among the children of lbian or gay New Fay Stctur Study (NFSS) is a social-science data-llectn project that nducted a study to see of there were any differenc between children of homosexual relatnships and children of heterosexual relatnships over 40 areas of social, emotnal, and relatnal oute variabl when pared wh six other fay-of-orig typ.

Aidan wanted to bee her school's Dm Major, although the potential prott by others; Hope learned that her parents allowed her to explorer bee they knew rejectn well; Cooper, whose mother nceived him through sperm donatn, wanted to fd outThe are stori wh young people and how their gay parents affected their liv.

FOR GAY MEN, HAVG A BLOGIL CHILD N BE PLITED

ITALY BEGS REMOVG GAY MOTHERS OM CHILDREN’S BIRTH CERTIFIT

THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV

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

ADVANTAG AND DISADVANTAG OF GAY ADOPTN AND GAY PARENTG

12 POPULAR CHILDREN’S TV SHOWS THAT HAVE GAY CHARACTERS

HOW DO I DISCS BEG GAY WH MY 8-YEAR-OLD?

PROS AND CONS FOR CHOOSG GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS COLORADO BY ADOPTN CHOIC OF COLORADO | JUN 11, 2021 | BLOG FACEBOOK TWTER GOOGLE+ PTERT GMAIL PROS AND CONS FOR CHOOSG GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS COLORADO

20/20: GROWG UP WH GAY PARENTS

STIGMA EXPERIENC, MENTAL HEALTH, PERCEIVED PARENTG COMPETENCE, AND PARENT–CHILD RELATNSHIPS AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND HETEROSEXUAL ADOPTIVE PARENTS THE UNED STAT

DO GAY PARENTS HAVE AN AFFECT ON THEIR CHILDREN

I HAVE GAY PARENTS