Posted on 05/25/2004 2:04:59 PM PDT by El Conservador
PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - "I love my lesbian moms," read a hand-lettered sign a teen-ager held up recently to motorists passing a county building in Portland, Oregon, where gay couples lined up to get marriage licenses.
The message, prompted by the heated national debate over gay marriage, underscored a growing phenomenon -- lesbian couples having babies and raising families.
According to the Family Pride Coalition, a national advocacy group for gay and lesbian families, some 9 million children in America have at least one gay parent and one in five lesbian coupled households include a child under 18.
"I wouldn't call it a baby boom exactly. It has been steadily growing all along," said Aimee Gelnaw, a lesbian mother of two and executive director of the coalition.
Using artificial insemination to get pregnant, lesbians are four times more likely to have children than gay men.
"Same-sex couples and single women are 40 percent of our business, and it is the fastest-growing segment," said Marla Eby, vice president of marketing at California Cryobank Inc., Los Angeles, which ships semen nationwide.
The earliest lesbian-couple families often included children born into heterosexual marriages before the mothers "came out" as lesbians.
But in the 1980s many sperm banks opened their doors to unmarried women, making unconventional families more feasible.
Gay pride celebrations have begun including child-centered events with face painting and play activities. Gay parents can flip through the glossy magazine "And Baby" geared to their families.
CHOOSING A DONOR
The first step for lesbian would-be parents is choosing a sperm donor. Gay rights groups say the matter goes beyond weighing physical and mental attributes. Legal issues can arise, such as whether the donor would let the child know his identity, when he or she comes of age.
Once the baby is born, couples often take legal steps to protect their families. In the states that allow it, the non-biological mother often adopts the baby so both mothers' names can go on the birth certificate.
Unlike heterosexual married couples, lesbians often have to draw up complicated wills and directives to protect their families should one partner die or the relationship end.
The fragility of these families was recently brought home on a story line of the television show "ER" in which a female doctor and a female firefighter have a baby together. When the firefighter dies, her parents -- the biological grandparents -- refuse to hand over the infant boy to his other mother.
"The story line is very significant in my own life," said "ER" executive producer Dee Johnson, who has two sons with her female partner of 10 years.
Gelnaw relocated while she was adopting her partner's baby. When a judge declared the adoption "provisional," Gelnaw had to fly back several times for follow-up interviews.
"I have a master's degree in child development and I had to prove I was a fit parent. I had to sit there with this caseworker and tell her what we feed Dewey (their daughter) for breakfast," Gelnaw said.
Despite greater acceptance generally, vocal opponents of same-sex parenting remain. "We do not support gay marriage, gay adoption or gay people becoming parents," Michelle Ammons, director of communications for the Christian Coalition said. "We don't support bringing children into the gay lifestyle."
GOOD PARENTS
As a result, lesbian mothers sometimes move to "friendlier" states or communities, including Seattle and Portland.
Many lesbian couples also consider their children's well-being before they conceive, including the impact of not having a male role model in the home. Couples also worry that their children would be teased at school or the playground.
"We would have never had Carson if we had thought she would be bullied or have a hard time," Liz Viggiano, a Portland nurse said, rocking her 10-month-old daughter to sleep.
Studies show lesbian parents are doing a good job. "Absolutely, these kids do fine," said Dr. Nanette Gartrell, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is in the 18th year of a study on lesbian families created by donor insemination.
Sometimes the children themselves put the whole controversy in perspective. Gelnaw said her son Zack decided on his own to stop giving interviews by the age of 12.
"Time magazine wanted to talk with him. He usually enjoyed doing the interviews, but we discussed it and he said 'No, I don't want to do it. I'm just a kid with parents, there is nothing to talk about."'
and i thought my parents were gay! (gay meaning lame in this sentence)
"Lesbian Soccer Moms" sounds like a porn video.
Like David Crosby.
So gay men, using artificial insemination, have one-fourth as good a chance of bearing children? Wow, the technology has progressed more than I thought.
| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
This reminds me of a story my niece and nephew would just as soon forget...
My sister had a friend over at the same time my niece had her boyfriend to visit. My nephew suggested that they buy some Dairy Queen. My niece, the boyfriend and my nephew took the order and left for the store. When they got back, my sister was on the floor, topless with her "friend". My nieces boyfriend had the good grace never to mention it again.
My nephew no longer speaks to his mother.
Oh yeah, this is really psychologically helpful to a child. /sarcasm off/
Totally ridiculous. History is full of women (sisters, mothers and grandmothers, friends, etc.) bringing up children alone because the children's fathers had died or left the family to go to war, or even because they were away at sea for decades.
It is normal for children to be brought up by women. In traditional Christian and Jewish practice, it is also normal for a man to be part of this, but as a providing parent rather than a nuturing parent.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with a male parent who is more involved in the life of his kids. What I am saying is that these gay "activists" are trying to take a biological predisposition (women bring up children) and turn it into something sexual, which it is not and never had been.
Now we must endorse child abuse too.
And I'm sure they don't look like they should be in movies either.
Real lesbians are ugly anyway.
Studies show lesbian parents are doing a good job. "Absolutely, these kids do fine," said Dr. Nanette Gartrell, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is in the 18th year of a study on lesbian families created by donor insemination.
"Are children raised by gay parents worse off than other children? As same sex couples line up for marriage licenses in Massachusetts, the question achieves greater urgency.
Two researchers answered when they reviewed the available scholarly literature in the American Sociological Review three years ago. What makes their essay intriguing is that both professors Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz are emphatically in favor of gay marriage and child-rearing. Being honest scholars, though, they could not accept the tendentious spin that others in their field have put on the available research. They deny that the studies show "no difference" between children raised in gay and lesbian homes and those raised in heterosexual homes...
Biblarz and Stacey examined 21 studies of "lesbigay" couples' children compared with heterosexual parents' children. While all of the researchers had claimed to find "no difference" in outcomes between the two groups, Biblarz and Stacey disagree. There are statistically significant differences in gender identity, sexual experimentation and promiscuity...
More children being denied fathers, things are only going to get worse. These people make me sick, they're so incredibly selfish.
The problem with gay mens' fertility is due to where fertilization occurs. Those eggs were formerly quiche just hours earlier.
"some 9 million children in America have at least one gay parent"
I would call that a highly dubious claim at best. Sounds like more gay propaganda, or, being more of an artsy bunch they really do have problems with math.
Chalk up another slice of evidence backing up the Pew Research Center study about media bias.
The pollyannas who claim "no difference" today are difficult to refute. They control the research money. The population they claim to speak for is still usually quite young and certainly still quite small. But in a few decades pollyanna researchers will be replaced by a large population of adult "children" of gays who will speak for themselves. It will be very interesting to hear what they have to say.
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