Posted on 05/20/2004 10:06:01 PM PDT by kattracks
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 begin with the common sense observation that good data on children raised by gay and lesbian parents are difficult to come by. Many of the children studied were conceived in traditional families and lived through a divorce before being raised by one biological parent and his or her gay partner. When comparing these children to those from intact families, the trauma of the divorce would have to be considered.
Then there is the problem of selection. "Most research to date has been conducted on white lesbian mothers who are comparatively educated, mature and reside in relatively progressive urban centers, most often in California or the Northeastern states."
The authors also doubt the conventional wisdom that broader acceptance of homosexuality will increase the number of children being raised in same-sex households. They believe the opposite is more likely. Their reasoning goes as follows: Most children being raised by gays and lesbians were originally born into heterosexual families. The authors believe a significant number of these parents (who would later come out of the closet) would never have entered heterosexual marriages if same sex unions carried less of a stigma.
"As homosexuality becomes more legitimate," they write, "far fewer people with homoerotic desires should feel compelled to enter heterosexual marriages, and thus fewer should become parents in this way."
A countervailing trend is also at work. Lesbian and gay couples are taking advantage of the less censorious social climate to form whole gay families. But Biblarz and Stacey doubt that this will overcome the first trend. For gay men, reproduction is a complicated and expensive affair. They must either adopt or pay a surrogate to carry a baby for them. Besides, as the authors note, men of both sexual orientations are less likely to desire children than are women. For lesbian women, obviously, the process is far simpler. A trip to the local sperm bank is all that is required. But since there are many more homosexual men than women, the authors doubt that the increased number of lesbian couples will add to the total of gay-raised children much if at all in light of the first effect.
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. The authors are quick to add that these observed differences do not alarm them. They are happy to embrace a variety of family forms. And if gay parenting means more gay offspring, the authors are not alarmed by this.
First, not surprisingly, both boys and girls raised by homosexuals are far more likely to tell researchers that they have experimented with or considered homosexuality themselves. This is no shock. The research further shows that daughters raised by lesbians tend to have a larger number of sexual partners from puberty to adulthood than children in ordinary homes. It also, quite interestingly, shows that boys raised by lesbians have fewer sexual encounters than boys raised by heterosexual parents.
As Biblarz and Stacey observe, the majority of children raised in gay families turn out to be heterosexual in adulthood (bearing in mind the limitations of the research).
Biblarz and Stacey deserve credit for their honesty. But their breezy embrace of gay parenting is highly reminiscent of the cheerful accounts offered in the 1970s for divorce and single parent households. In those days, we were told that whatever made for a happier parent also made for a happier child. We are sadder and wiser now. The children are much sadder.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
It's hard to think of a more selfish act than a homo insisting on adopting/raising a child.
It's also saddening that the medical establishment has conspired to decide that homoism is NOT a mental defect, because quite simply, it is. Period.
Growing up is hard enough. Why insist on your 'right' to raise a child just to put a kid through the torment of being raised in a homo home.
How can any honest person really believe that being raised by two homosexual "parents" is in any way comparable to being raised by a real mother and father? How did it come to pass that such a sick, twisted scenario could even be conceivable, let alone debatable?
Wait until the big push for legalization of "Man-Boy Love" comes along. All of the Hollywood scriptwriters and actors, all of the news anchors (except Fox), the college faculty, the APA, and many more are ready and eager to jump on board to slander all those like us who will publicly speak out against "Intergenerational Love," as they call it.
Anyone who would even ask this question has a major problem.
The pressures on normal families and kids growing up are difficult enough. Mix in homosexual parents, and the difficulties increase exponentially.
That is total bullshite.
Heterosexual men in marriage are likely to want more children than the wife does as a rule from what I have observed in my 46 years.
Yes ladies, I know we aren't the ones who have to gestate progeny.
Homosexual Agenda Ping - I wish Mona would call them "homosexual", not "gay". To use the propaganda word "gay" is submitting to their manipulation of the English language.
Not an earth shaking article but adds a little more ammo to the huge pile against "gay" marriage.
Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
| 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" |
Gay marriage is this countries punishment for what we have done to regular marriage. We've made it cheap and meaningless as we have kicked God out of our lives and out of our country.
For their honesty I applaud them, but their unwillingness to allow the facts to change their pro-homosexual bias is disturbing.
They already are pushing for it along with love of their dogs, polygamy, etc...
Refusal to allow the facts to change your behaviour is tacit denial of said facts.
It came to pass because "What I Want" has become THE MOST IMPORTANT moral consideration in our culture. This is as true for homosexual adoption as it is for abortion, divorce, and sexual license.
If you read carefully, you'll see that the "impacts" they mention are sexual ones. (Perhaps Ms. Charen is the guilty party here....) If one is a proponent of sexual license, there would be no intrinsic problem with girls with lesbian mothers having "more sexual partners" than girls raised in normal families.
IMO what's really going on here is a misapprehension of the real issue. The basic problem is not homosexuality per se, but a cultural perception that sex is the most important consideration. Just look at how many "Big Issues" in the public eye have to do with sex (of various sorts). It's sick.
I suspect the incidence of this will be reduced if homosexual marriage becomes commonplace. The primary reason most homosexuals want to adopt is to "legitimize" either themselves or their "family." The marriage license will do that, whout all the PITA of raising a kid.
Just my $.02.
Shalom.
They are really not even homosexual. They are homoerotic. Sex is one of the two ways living beings reproduce. Homoerotic behavior is about pleasure, not reproduction. "Homosexual sex" is really mutual masturbation.
Shalom.
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