Gay parentg: 's plited | Parents and parentg | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS
• GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
• KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE
• GAY PARENTG: 'S PLITED

WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS

Gay marriage, and pecially gay parentg, has been the cross hairs recent Jan. 9), Pope Benedict lled gay marriage a threat "to the future of humany self, " cg the need for children to have heterosexual rearch on fai head by gays and lbians don't back up the dire assertns.

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. Gays and lbians rarely bee parents by accint, pared wh an almost 50 percent accintal pregnancy rate among heterosexuals, Goldberg said.

"And while rearch dit that kids of gay parents show few differenc achievement, mental health, social functng and other measur, the kids may have the advantage of open-mdns, tolerance and role mols for equable relatnships, acrdg to some rearch. Not only that, but gays and lbians are likely to provi hom for difficult-to-place children the foster system, studi show. ) [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]Adoptg the needitGay adoptn recently ed ntroversy Illois, where Catholic Chari adoptn servic cid November to cease offerg servic bee the state refed fundg unls the groups agreed not to discrimate agast gays and lbians.

GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?

Catholic opposn asi, rearch suggts that gay and lbian parents are actually a powerful rource for kids need of adoptn. Acrdg to a 2007 report by the Williams Instute and the Urban Instute, 65, 000 kids were livg wh adoptive gay parents between 2000 and 2002, wh another 14, 000 foster hom head by gays and lbians.

Donaldson Adoptn Instute found that, of gay and lbian adoptns at more than 300 agenci, 10 percent of the kids placed were olr than 6 — typilly a very difficult age to adopt out. Sixty percent of gay and lbian upl adopted across rac, which is important given that mory children the foster system tend to lger. 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).

But rearch suggts that gays and lbians are more likely than heterosexuals to adopt olr, special-needs and mory children, he said.

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

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.

The 2007 report by the Urban Instute also found that more than half of gay men and 41 percent of lbians the U.

That adds up to an timated 2 ln gay people who are terted adoptn.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

"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. But Stacey spects that gay men "will be the bt parents on average, " she 's a speculatn, she said, but if lbian parents have to really plan to have a child, 's even harr for gay men. Gay men may also experience fewer parentg nflicts, she add.

GAY PARENTG: 'S PLITED

"Wh gay men, you don't have that factor, " she said. [6 Genr Myths Bted]Nurturg toleranceIn fact, the only nsistent plac you fd differenc between how kids of gay parents and kids of straight parents turn out are issu of tolerance and open-mdns, acrdg to Goldberg. In a paper published 2007 the Amerin Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Goldberg nducted -pth terviews wh 46 adults wh at least one gay parent.