Gay Parents Raisg Kids: How Will They Fare? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
• THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV
• PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE

GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?

The northern Italian cy of Padua has started removg the nam of non-blogil gay mothers om their children’s birth certifit unr new legislatn passed by the “tradnal fay-first” ernment of Prime Mister Grgia Meloni.

Surrogacy is illegal Italy, and gay marriage has not been legalized. “There is no discrimatn agast children, ” Fay Mister Eugenia Roccella told parliament when she troduced the bill June, explag that the children of gay upl would have accs to school and medil servic jt like those who only have one livg parent.

THE CHILDREN OF GAY PARENTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELV

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. The Hollywood exampl are important that they’ve helped prent gay parentg as not unlike straight parentg: challengg, joyful, plited, and most of all, entirely normal.

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.

Last November Illois, Catholic Chari ceased s adoptn servic after the state refed fundg unls the groups agreed not to discrimate agast gays and lbians. Although gay and lbian parents are a powerful rource for kids need of adoptn—at least half of all children foster re the U. Are livg wh adoptive gay parents—Catholic Chari simply qu the bs rather than ply.

PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE

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. He ced gay upl his own life, “same-sex upl who are as mted, as monogamo, as rponsible, as lovg a group of parents as any heterosexual uple that I know, ” he said.

” 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. They want to know: How will the children of gay parents fare?

Can kids raised homosexual hom turn out (gasp) okay? Throughout many years of workg wh fai, I’ve studied the liv of gay parents raisg sons and dghters.