Same-sex parenting

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LGBT parenting refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people parenting one or more children. Gay men face options that include "foster care, variations of domestic and international adoption, diverse forms of surrogacy (whether "traditional" or gestational), and kinship arrangements, wherein they might coparent with a woman or women with whom they are intimately but not sexually involved." LGBT parents can also include single people who are parenting; to a lesser extent, the term sometimes refers to families with LGBT children.

In the 2000 U.S. Census, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under eighteen living in their home. Some children do not know they have an LGBT parent; coming out issues vary and some parents may never come out to their children. In January 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that same-sex couples have the right to adopt a child. In the U.S., LGBT people can legally adopt in all states except for Florida.

There is a consensus among credible scientific researchers which confirms the parenting abilities of same-sex parents, and finds positive outcomes for their children. Statements by the leading associations of experts in this area also reflect professional consensus that children raised by lesbian or gay parents do not differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents. No credible empirical research suggests otherwise. The research also shows that children who have two parents, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientations, do better than children with only one parent. Only limited research exists on the association between the sexual orientation of parents and that of their children. To the extent that data is available, it shows that the vast majority of children raised by lesbian and gay parents grow up to be heterosexual.

Forms of LGBT parenting

Male same-sex couple with a child.

Many LGBT people are parents through various means including current or former relationships, Coparenting, adoption, donor insemination, and surrogacy; LGBT people are eligible to act as foster caregivers in some countries (such as the UK). A lesbian or gay man may have children within a mixed-orientation marriage either because of a fear of discrimination, to manage ego-dystonic sexual orientation, affection or love, desire for family, or spiritual reasons. Also, some children do not know they have an LGBT parent.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are parents. In the 2000 U.S. Census, for example, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under the age of 18 living in the home. As of 2005, an estimated 270,313 children in the United States live in households headed by same-sex couples.

Legal issues

Adoption

Main article: LGBT adoption

Several countries allow same-sex couples to adopt children, while most jurisdictions prohibit them from doing so. Some jurisdictions limit adoption by same-sex couples to step-parent adoption, where one partner in a same-sex couple can legally adopt the children of the partner. Adoption by indvidual LGBT persons is also legal in some jurisdictions.

In January 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that same-sex couples have the right to adopt a child. In all U.S. states except for Florida, unmarried LGBT adults can petition to adopt a child. Granting the petition is left to the discretion of a judge.

Marriage

Main articles: Same-sex marriage and Same-sex marriage and the family

Literature indicates that parents’ financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally-recognized union.

LGBT adoption is often raised as an issue in debates over legalizing same-sex marriage both by proponents, who argue that LGBT parents should receive equal benefit from marriage laws, and opponents, who argue that same-sex marriage will lead to increased incidences of LGBT adoption. In the 2002 leading Canadian same-sex marriage case Halpern v. Canada (Attorney General), the Court found that "excluding gays and lesbians from marriage disregards the needs, capacities, and circumstances of same-sex spouses and their children." In the 2010 US case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the trial judge found that "[c]hildren raised by gay or lesbian parents are as likely as children raised by heterosexual parents to be healthy, successful and well-adjusted," and that this conclusion was "accepted beyond serious debate in the field of developmental psychology."

Children’s outcomes

General consensus

Society’s early assumptions about the superiority of the traditional family form have been challenged by the results of empirical research. Early in the Twentieth Century, it was widely believed that traditional family settings were necessary in order for children to adjust well. Since the 1970s, it has become increasingly clear that it is family processes (such as the quality of parenting, the psychosocial well-being of parents, the quality of and satisfaction with relationships within the family, and the level of co-operation and harmony between parents) that contribute to determining children’s well-being and ‘outcomes’, rather than family structures, per se, such as the number, gender, sexuality and co-habitation status of parents. Since the end of the 1980s, as a result, it has been well established that children and adolescents can adjust just as well in nontraditional settings as in traditional settings. In the social sciences, the term “traditional family” refers to the childrearing environment that social scientists formerly considered the norm -- a middleclass family with a bread-winning father and a stay-at-home mother, married to each other and raising their biological children. “Nontraditional” family forms, by definition, involve any kind of variation from this pattern. Thus, families with fathers who assume responsibility for childcare would qualify as nontraditional, as would families with employed mothers, with two employed parents, with one parent, or that rely on childcare centers instead of performing childcare exclusively within the home. Nontraditional families constitute the vast majority of families in the United States today.

Although it is sometimes asserted in policy debates that heterosexual couples are inherently better parents than same-sex couples, or that the children of lesbian or gay parents fare worse than children raised by heterosexual parents, those assertions find no support in the scientific research literature. In fact, the promotion of this notion, and the laws and public policies that embody it, are clearly counter to the well-being of children. No research supports the widely held conviction that the gender of parents matters for child well-being. Society is replete with role models from whom children and adolescents can learn about socially prescribed male and female roles.

Indeed, the scientific research that has directly compared outcomes for children with gay and lesbian parents with outcomes for children with heterosexual parents has been remarkably consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are every bit as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents, despite the reality that considerable legal discrimination and inequity remain significant challenges for these families. These data have demonstrated no risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with 1 or more gay parents.

The abilities of gay and lesbian persons as parents and the positive outcomes for their children are not areas where credible scientific researchers disagree. Statements by the leading associations of experts in this area reflect professional consensus that children raised by lesbian or gay parents do not differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents. No credible empirical research suggests otherwise.

Literature indicates that parents’ financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally-recognized union.

Professor Judith Stacey, of New York University, stated: “Rarely is there as much consensus in any area of social science as in the case of gay parenting, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics and all of the major professional organizations with expertise in child welfare have issued reports and resolutions in support of gay and lesbian parental rights”. These organizations include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the Child Welfare League of America, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, and Canadian Psychological Association.

Research that has uncovered interesting differences in child outcomes indirectly connected with having lesbian or gay parents notes that the connections are not causal, and that there are no differences between heterosexual and lesbian or gay families that are of social concern.

School outcomes

Until 2010, research on school outcomes for the children of same-sex couples was limited to studies on small samples studies, and meta-analyses thereof. The first large sample study based on US nationally representative data confirmed that "children raised by same-sex couples have no fundamental deficits in making normal progress through school."

Sexuality of children

Children raised by same-sex parents are not more likely identify as homosexual themselves. According to Stacey & Biblarz more research is needed into the area of sexuality:

We know very little yet about how parents influence the development of their children's sexual identities or how these intersect with gender... We need comparable data for children reared by single heterosexual mothers or exclusively by men to distinguish the impact of gender from sexual identity here

Maturity of research

Most of the studies appeared in rigorously peer-reviewed and highly selective journals, whose standards represent expert consensus on generally accepted social scientific standards for research on child and adolescent development.

Gregory M. Herek states that "If gay, lesbian, or bisexual parents were inherently less capable than otherwise comparable heterosexual parents, their children would evidence problems regardless of the type of sample. This pattern clearly has not been observed. Given the consistent failures in this research literature to disprove the null hypothesis, the burden of empirical proof is on those who argue that the children of sexual minority parents fare worse than the children of heterosexual parents." Michael J. Rosenfeld, professor of sociology at Stanford University, wrote in 2010 that "[A] critique of the literature—that the sample sizes of the studies are too small to allow for statistically powerful tests—continues to be relevant." Similar concern on the maturity of research have appeared in the mass media, for example in 2006 in LA Times, and have been criticized by Herek on his blog.

Ethical questions

Dr. Stephen Hicks of the University of Salford questions the value of trying to establish that lesbian or gay parents are defective or suitable, arguing such positions are flawed because they are informed by ideologies that either oppose or support such families. In Hicks' view, "Instead of asking whether gay parenting is bad for kids, I think we should ask how contemporary discourses of sexuality maintain the very idea that lesbian and gay families are essentially different and, indeed, deficient. But, in order to ask this, I think that we need a wider range of research into lesbian and gay parenting... More work of this sort will help us to ask more complex questions about forms of parenting that continue to offer some novel and challenging approaches to family life."

Gregory M. Herek noted that "empirical research can’t reconcile disputes about core values, but it is very good at addressing questions of fact. Policy debates will be impoverished if this important source of knowledge is simply dismissed as a “he said, she said” squabble."

Misrepresentation of research

In a 2006 statement the Canadian Psychological Association released an updated statement on their 2003 and 2005 conclusions, saying, "The CPA recognizes and appreciates that persons and institutions are entitled to their opinions and positions on this issue. However, CPA is concerned that some persons and institutions are mis-interpreting the findings of psychological research to support their positions, when their positions are more accurately based on other systems of belief or values." The association drew attention to Herek’s extensive 2006 review of relevant literature, which concluded that the research on which opponents to marriage of same-sex couples rely, look at the functioning of children in intact families with heterosexual parents compared to those children raised by a single parent following divorce or death of a spouse. They do not include studies that compare the functioning of children raised by heterosexual couples with the functioning of children raised by same-sex couples. In this group of studies, any differences observed are more accurately attributable to the effects of death or divorce, and/or to the effects of living with a single parent, rather than to parents’ sexual orientation. These studies do not tell us that the children of same-sex parents in an intact relationship fair worse than the children of opposite-sex parents in an intact relationship

According to the American Psychological Association, California Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, National Association of Social Workers and National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter, when comparing the outcomes of different forms of parenting, it is critically important to make appropriate comparisons. For example, differences resulting from the number of parents in a household cannot be attributed to the parents’ gender or sexual orientation. Research in households with heterosexual parents generally indicates that – all else being equal – children do better with two parenting figures rather than just one. The specific research studies typically cited in this regard do not address parents’ sexual orientation, however, and therefore do not permit any conclusions to be drawn about the consequences of having heterosexual versus nonheterosexual parents, or two parents who are of the same versus different genders.

According to the Maine Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics, "Those who claim that children need a biologically related mother and father to flourish are either ignorant of the scientific literature or are misrepresenting it or both. It is scientifically untenable to use studies about the effects on children of divorce or being raised in one parent households, to draw conclusions about the children raised in two parents households whether the parents are same or opposite-sex gender."

See also

Social

• LGBT adoption
• Same-sex marriage and the family
• Surrogacy
• Third party reproduction

Medical:

• Artificial insemination
• Assisted reproductive technology
• Female sperm
• In vitro fertilisation
• Male egg
• Sperm donation

Regional:

• LGBT rights in Brazil
• LGBT rights in Europe
• LGBT rights in Australia
• Same-sex adoption in Brazil

External links

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Parented Families – A Literature Review prepared for The Australian Psychological Society (2007)
• Too High a Price – The Case Against Restricting Gay Parenting (updated second edition) (2006), a publication by the ACLU, includes a detailed review of studies and research.
• American Psychological Association (APA) Public Interest Directorate: Research Summary on Lesbian and Gay Parenting (2005)
• Brief presented to the Legislative House of Commons Committee on Bill C38 By the Canadian Psychological Association (2005)
• [1] – Rainbow Rumpus, the magazine for kids with LGBT parents
• site on gay parent, testimonial, co-parent – dating between gays and lesbians
• Gay And Lesbian Parenting Blog
• Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle
• Resources for Gay Dads