Why Gay Parents May Be the Bt Parents | Live Science

Contents:

• GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
• HOW TO DEAL WH HAVG GAY PARENTS
• DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS
• WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS
• KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
• GAY MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS: IS THERE A SPECIAL CLOSENS?
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• MOM'S GEICS COULD PRODUCE GAY SONS
• PARENTS’ FLUENCE ON LBIAN, GAY, OR BISEXUAL TEENS
• LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?

Dpe numero attempts to bias the rults favour of the null hypothis and allowg for up to 20 (of 63, 32%) dg errors, Cameron's (2006) hypothis that gay and lbian parents would be more likely to have gay, lbian, bisexual or unsure (of sexual orientatn) sons and dghters was nfirmed. The Amerin Psychologil Associatn (APA) reported on gay parentg, wh Loren Marks, associate profsor at the School of Human Elogy at Louisiana State Universy, statg that “Not a sgle study has found children of lbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged any signifint rpect relative to children of heterosexual parents” (Marks 2012). This study uld jt be a rult of chance, as the numbers of children wh homosexual parents were low, or other factors uld go to the negative rults of the 40 unknown “tegori” such as the stcture of the way the tegori are word or set up, which uld be due to Regnes’s own personal bias.

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. 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.

HOW TO DEAL WH HAVG 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. Many lived wh the gay parent Amato, a soclogist at Penn State who was not volved the study and has wrten favor of same-sex marriage, said that many scholars spected that some children wh a gay parent might have more troubl than the average child, particularly past s when the stigma was greater. “What we really need this field is for strong skeptics to study gay, stable parents and pare them directly to a siar group of heterosexual, stable parents, ” said Judh Stacey, a soclogist at New York study looked a natnally reprentative sample of 2, 988 people ag 18 to 39.

DEBATE ON A STUDY EXAMG GAY PARENTS

Regnes said; none of those whose fathers had had a same-sex relatnship lived full time wh their fathers through study ntrolled for factors like parent tn, e, the perceived level of tolerance for gays each person’s muny and whether the child was bullied as a rult of the parent’s sexual orientatn.

WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS

Compared wh the tradnal group, those wh a gay parent reported ls tn on average and more sexual partners; the same was te of those who grew up other nontradnal hoeholds, to a slightly lser Regnes said that the study did not clu the number, or variety, of people wh a gay parent that he would have liked.

In fact, some ways, gay parents may brg talents to the table that straight parents don' parents "tend to be more motivated, more mted than heterosexual parents on average, bee they chose to be parents, " said Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark Universy Massachetts who rearch gay and lbian parentg. 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). Part of that uld be their own preferenc, and part uld be bee of discrimatn by adoptn agenci that puts more difficult children wh what seworkers see as "ls sirable" matter how you slice , Brodzsky told LiveScience, gays and lbians are highly terted adoptn as a group.

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

"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. "There's no doubt whatsoever om the rearch that children wh two lbian parents are growg up to be jt as well-adjted and succsful" as children wh a male and a female parent, " Stacey told is very ltle rearch on the children of gay men, so Stacey and Biblarz uldn't draw nclns on those fai. "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.

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. In fact, one prehensive study of children raised by lbian mothers or gay fathers nclud that children raised by same-sex parents did not differ om other children terms of emotnal functng, sexual orientatn, stigmatizatn, genr role behavr, behavral adjtment, genr inty, learng and gra pot averag.

GAY MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS: IS THERE A SPECIAL CLOSENS?

Though many fay relatnships may be plex, explag fay relatnships is uniquely plex for lbian and gay parented fai bee of the lack of societal norms and relevant exampl media, stereotyped notns about such relatnships that are mon, and the fear of discrimatn faced by the fai. Competent parentg may be fluenced by gay and lbian parents’ abily to accept and acknowledge their inty and how they are able to negotiate livg a heterosexist, homophobic, or otherwise discrimatory society, while rearg their children a fay un that is not socially sanctned.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

The arrangement of a mother's gen uld affect the sexual orientatn of her son, acrdg to a new fdg, tailed the Febary issue of the journal Human Geics, adds fuel to the -long bate about whether so-lled "gay gen" might rearchers examed a phenomenon lled "X chromosome activatn" 97 mothers of gay sons and 103 mothers whose sons were not gay. "We thk that there are one or more gen on the X chromosome that have an effect on the sexual orientatn of the sons of the mothers, as well as an effect on the cells we were lookg at, " Bocklandt chromosom implitedBocklandt was also volved an earlier study that looked at the entire human genome of men who had two or more gay brothers.

The rearchers found intil stretch of DNA on three chromosom—7, 8 and 10—that were shared by about 60 percent of the gay brothers the study also found mothers to have an unually large role their son's sexual orientatn: the regn on chromosome 10 rrelated wh homosexualy only if was hered om the rults om the two studi suggt that there are multiple geic factors volved termg a person's sexual orientatn and that might vary pendg on the person. "We thk that there are gog to be some gay men who are X chromosome gay men and some who are chromosome 7 gay men or chromosome 10 gay men or some batn, " Bocklandt said a telephone rearchers now thk that there is no sgle gay gene that ntrols whether a person is homosexual or not. Relig lears who believe that sexual orientatn is a choice argue that such rearch is an attempt to legimize homosexualy; others worry that a tailed knowledge of the geics unrlyg homosexualy will open the door to geic engeerg that prevents Bocklandt don't thk the ncerns should prevent scientists om askg the basic qutn of whether homosexualy has an unrlyg geic ponent to or not.

MOM'S GEICS COULD PRODUCE GAY SONS

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).

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. 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). 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).

PARENTS’ FLUENCE ON LBIAN, GAY, OR BISEXUAL TEENS

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). 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).

LBIAN AND GAY PARENTG

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). Much of the existg rearch on lbian mothers, gay fathers, and their children was iated to addrs ncerns that arose for such fai the ntext of child ctody disput, and was apparently signed at least part to exame the veracy of mon stereotyp that have been voiced legal proceedgs.

Although those om lbian fai were more likely to explore same-sex relatnships, particularly if their childhood fay environment was characterized by an openns and acceptance of lbian and gay relatnships, the large majory of children who grew up lbian fai intified as heterosexual. 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.