The American College of Pediatricians has recently come out with a paper discouraging the rearing of children in homosexual households.
The report, "Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time For Change?" cites studies showing that children who are reared in traditional two-parent homes are "more likely to thrive emotionally, mentally, and physically in a home with two heterosexual parents versus a home with a single parent."
The report notes that "...current studies that appear to indicate neutral to favorable results from homosexual parenting have critical flaws such as non-longitudinal design, lack of proper controls, and failure to account for confounding variables."
However, some studies do show that "Children reared in homosexual households are more likely to experience sexual confusion, practice homosexual behavior, and engage in sexual experimentation. Adolescents and young adults who adopt the homosexual lifestyle, like their adult counterparts, are at increased risk of mental health problems, including major depression, anxiety disorder, conduct disorder, substance dependence, and especially suicidal ideation and suicide attempts."
The report is available here: "Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time For Change?"
See also in this thread: An excerpt from "Are children of gay parents worse off?"
... When it comes policy on homosexual issues, the politically correct American Academy of Pediatrics toes the homosexual agenda line. And as I posted in reply 46:
professionals in one field, such as medicine, often rely on the "expertise" of "professionals" in other fields, such as psychology, when making policy or issuing statements to the general public.
That is indeed true as I will show later. However, beyond relying on the professional positions of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, there has been an infiltration of pro-homosexual activists in the American Academy of Pediatrics, albeit not to the degree that both APA's have been infiltrated. This infiltration has led to AAP taking positions on homosexual parenting that are not based on science, but on political social agenda.
Since you expressed concern with the founding date and the basic tenents of the American College of Pediatricians, let's first look at who they are and why they decided to form their professional organization:
Pediatricians' Groups Differ On Attitudes Toward Homosexual Parenting : A new group is formed to counterbalance the AAP's social activism.
"... However, a new group--the American College of Pediatrics (sic), a Tennessee-based alternative organization headed by Dr. Joseph Zanga--has just responded by requesting that its fellow organization reverse its stand.
Zanga's group was formed by 100 dissenting members of the AAP. His organization disagrees with the AAP's point of view on gay parenting, as well as numerous other social issues.
In a recent interview with NARTH, Dr. Zanga said that the policy statement did not have the support of the AAP membership as a whole. In fact, the position paper--entitled "Co-Parent or Second Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents" -- was released to the public despite the objections of one-third of the committee which drafted it, he noted.
Zanga is still an active member of the larger AAP. In fact, he chairs its Bioethics Committee, which, he says, objected to the release of the position paper, citing what it felt were numerous flaws in the research and its foundation in "very weak science."
Because there was considerable opposition within AAP membership ranks to the pro-homosexual stance of the policy, Zanga says, the AAP commissioned a "technical report" to investigate its decision, authored by Boston pediatrician Ellen Perrin.
In that report, Perrin herself questioned the reliability of the studies used by her organization to measure the effects of same-sex couples raising either biological or adopted children, saying "The small and non-representative sample [of children raised by same-sex couples] studied," she said, "and the relatively young age of most of the children, suggest some reserve [concerning the policy statement]."
Although most ACP members retain their membership in the larger pediatrics group, Dr. Zanga said he and his fellow ACP members "do not want the media, the government, or the public to think that all pediatricians agree with the AAP's policies on controversial issues..."
The Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health is the division of AAP which issued the policy position paper on homosexual parenting. The position paper's technical report was written by Dr. Ellen Perrin, M.D. and Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts-New England Medical Center, and the Director of the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and the Center for Children with Special Needs.
Consider the following (excerpted) documentation, starting with the actual AAP position paper:
Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS
PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 2 February 2002, pp. 339-340
Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health"The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes that a considerable body of professional literature provides evidence that children with parents who are homosexual can have the same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment, and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual.1–9
On the basis of the acknowledged desirability that children have and maintain a continuing relationship with 2 loving and supportive parents, the Academy recommends that pediatricians do the following:
Be familiar with professional literature regarding gay and lesbian parents and their children.
Advocate for initiatives that establish permanency through coparent or second-parent adoption for children of same-sex partners through the judicial system, legislation, and community education..."
TESTIMONY OF PROFESSOR ELLEN PERRIN, MD, SUPPORTING H. 3677
"I am Dr. Ellen Perrin, Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts-New England Medical Center, and the Director of the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and the Center for Children with Special Needs. I speak to you today as a recognized expert in child development. One of my areas of special expertise is in the development and well-being of children whose parents are gay or lesbian.
I have reviewed hundreds of articles and books, and written and published a good deal myself about what happens to children whose parents are the same sex. I am considered to be the pediatrician most expert in the country on this topic.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a report last year that summarized three decades of research on the well-being of children raised by gay or lesbian parents. I was its primary author. As a result he AAP adopted a formal policy which stated that children who grow up with “gay or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual..."
In the on-line Special Report article "More and more American children are growing up with same-sex parents" By Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report / USNews.com (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040524/misc/24family_2.htm), Ellen Perrin, professor of pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts-New England Medical Center was quoted:
"If we could break down some of society's gender stereotypes, that would be a good thing."
Note that Ellen Perrin is also affiliated with the pro-homosexual American Psychological Association:
APA Journals: Families, Systems, & Health -- Editorial Staff:
... ADVISORY EDITORS...
Ellen Perrin Worcester, MA
Examining the Research Literature on Outcomes from Same-Sex Parenting: How sound is the American Academy of Pediatrics' statement endorsing same-sex parenting?
"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced in early February, 2002 “a growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual.”1 Based on this, the AAP supports “legislative and legal efforts” to allow homosexuals to adopt their partner’s children.2
However, the AAP received strong reaction from its membership. An email memo from the lead author of the AAP’s Technical Report to select members of the Academy on the issue laments:
…the AAP has received more messages – almost all of them CRITICAL – from members about the recent Policy Statement on coparent adoption than it has EVER received on any other topic… This is a serious problem, as it means that it will become harder to continue the work we have been doing to use the AAP as a vehicle for positive change.3
1) Reasons for Caution within the AAP’s Own Report
There are a number of details in the AAP’s own Technical Report that raise serious questions about their conclusion that “children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay or lesbian parents fare as well as in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual.”4
Ellen Perrin, author of the AAP’s Technical Report, was co-author of a 1994 study published in Pediatrics in Review entitled, “Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents.” The study explained, “Unfortunately, the research to date has limitations, including small sample size, non-random subject selection, narrow range of socioeconomic and racial background, and lack of long-term longitudinal follow-up.”5..."
Additional documentation:
Examining the Research on Homosexual Parenting
"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced on Feb. 4, 2002, "a growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with one or two gay or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual."1 Based on this, the AAP states it supports "legislative and legal efforts" to allow homosexuals to adopt their partner's children.2
Many in the media have used this statement from the respected AAP as a discussion-closer on whether heterosexual parenting is good or bad. The AAP says the gender of parents doesn't matter, so the media figure it must not really matter, either. The members of the AAP know better..."
Note the interprofessional soceity cooperation and support in the following excerpt from the American Psychiatric Association:
Pediatricians Support Adoption By Gay Partners
"Noting the considerable body of professional literature to support its position, the American Academy of Pediatrics releases a statement that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to adopt their partner’s children.
The country’s largest organization of pediatricians has come out strongly in favor of allowing gay men and lesbians to adopt their partner’s children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a policy statement in the February issue of its journal Pediatrics "emphasizing that in light of data showing that children of gay and lesbian parents function just as well emotionally, cognitively, and socially as children of heterosexual parents, courts should stop using sexual orientation as grounds to deny members of same-sex couples the right to adopt their partner’s children...
Consistent With APA, AACAP
Fassler noted that the AAP’s policy statement is consistent with positions on same-sex issues already adopted by APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). The AACAP statement points out, "There is no evidence to suggest or support that parents with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientation are per se different from or deficient in parenting skills, child-centered concerns, and parent-child attachments" when compared with heterosexual parents. It also states that there are no outcome data showing that children raised by homosexual or bisexual parents show more instability or developmental dysfunction than peers raised by two heterosexual parents.
Fassler said that the Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families "welcomes this action by the AAP" and plans to add it to the agenda for its May meeting.
To help their recommendations become reality, the AAP urges pediatricians to "become familiar with professional literature regarding gay and lesbian parents and their children..."
Pediatrics Group Endorses Homosexual Adoption... But New Policy Places Children at Risk
On February 3rd, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement endorsing adoption by same-sex couples, saying they can provide the same emotionally healthy family life as heterosexual parents. The academy is urging its 55,000 members to take an active role in supporting laws that allow gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals to adopt the children of the individuals with whom they cohabit.
But this new policy is based on politics, not science. Sadly, although AAP policy carries significant weight in our nation's courts, it is not in the best interests of children, whose interests the AAP claims to represent.
Studies demonstrate that there is, in fact, a difference between non-heterosexual and heterosexual parenting. Children raised by non-heterosexual parents are placed at risk. They are more apt to experience gender and sexual confusion; they are more apt to become promiscuous; they are at greater risk of losing a parent to AIDS, substance abuse or suicide. They suffer more depression and other emotional difficulties. They are also more likely to engage in same-sex behavior.
Furthermore, non-heterosexual couples are less stable than heterosexual couples in their relationships and they are more likely to separate. Research reveals that promiscuity is virtually the norm among male non-heterosexuals. Violence is substantially higher in non-heterosexual relationships. The list of risk factors continues.
Nature created male and female to be complementary to each other in myriad ways that enhance not only the couple's relationship, but the healthy and stable development of the children they produce. It is well known that fatherlessness is responsible for many of the ills of children in our society. There are few bodies of research where the evidence is so clear: children need both a mother and a father. Homes with a married mother and father are, all things considered, far better for raising emotionally stable children.
Perhaps the time has come for rational, reasonable people to insist that organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics either base their policies on science, or else label themselves as political organizations and relinquish their tax-exempt statuses.
And maybe it's also time that federal, state and local governments discontinue reliance on professional organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics when they need accurate, dispassionate, scientific information.
It's also time that the American people insist on truth, not politics, from all of our professional organizations.
Copyright © NARTH. All Rights Reserved.
Updated: 30 September 2002
No Basis: What the Studies Don't Tell Us About Same-Sex Parenting
For documentation of homosexual activism in both the APA's, see the following replies in scripter's "Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Revision 1.1)" thread:
American Psychological Association: 121, 240 and 242.
American Psychiatric Association: 46, 139, 213, 232, 237, 239, 241, 243, and 246.