same-sex marriage
AND CHILDREN
Helen Lovejoy
Maggie Gallagher
Maggie Gallagher
Research clearly demonstrates that family structure matters
for children, and the family structure that helps children
the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a
low-conflict marriage. Children in single-parent families,
children born to unmarried mothers, and children in
stepfamilies or cohabiting relationships face higher risks
of poor outcomes… There is thus value for children in
promoting strong, stable marriages between biological
parents.
“What Marriage is For”
The “Think of the Children” Objection
1. Children hunger for their biological parents.
Homosexual couples using in vitro fertilization (IVF) or surrogate
mothers deliberately create a class of children who will live
apart from their mother or father. Yale Child Study Center
psychiatrist Kyle Pruett reports that children of IVF often ask
their single or lesbian mothers about their fathers, asking
their mothers questions like the following:"Mommy, what did
you do with my daddy?" "Can I write him a letter?" "Has he
ever seen me?" "Didn't you like him? Didn't he like me?"
Elizabeth Marquardt reports that children of divorce often
report similar feelings about their non-custodial parent,
usually the father.
The “Think of the Children” Objection
Even when a man marries an older woman and they do not
adopt, his marriage helps protect children. How? His
marriage means, if he keeps his vows, that he will not
produce out-of-wedlock children.
“What Marriage is For”
The “Think of the Children” Objection
4. Evidence on parenting by same-sex couples is inadequate.
A number of leading professional associations have asserted
that there are "no differences" between children raised by
homosexuals and those raised by heterosexuals. But the
research in this area is quite preliminary; most of the studies
are done by advocates and most suffer from serious
methodological problems. Sociologist Steven Nock of the
University of Virginia, who is agnostic on the issue of same-sex
civil marriage, offered this review of the literature on gay
parenting as an expert witness for a Canadian court
considering legalization of same-sex civil marriage:
Through this analysis I draw my conclusions that 1) all of the articles I
reviewed contained at least one fatal flaw of design or execution; and 2) not
a single one of those studies was conducted according to general accepted
standards of scientific research.
The “Think of the Children” Objection
5. Evidence suggests children raised by homosexuals are more likely
to experience gender and sexual disorders.
Although the evidence on child outcomes is sketchy, it does suggest
that children raised by lesbians or homosexual men are more likely
to experience gender and sexual disorders. Judith Stacey-- a
sociologist and an advocate for same-sex civil marriage--reviewed
the literature on child outcomes and found the following: "lesbian
parenting may free daughters and sons from a broad but uneven
range of traditional gender prescriptions." Her conclusion here is
based on studies that show that sons of lesbians are less masculine
and that daughters of lesbians are more masculine…
Her review must be viewed judiciously, given the methodological
flaws detailed by Professor Nock in the literature as a whole.
Nevertheless, theses studies give some credence to conservative
concerns about the effects of homosexual parenting.
The “Think of the Children” Objection
Although it is sometimes asserted in policy debates that
heterosexual couples are inherently better parents than samesex 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… 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.
American Psychological Association
The “Think of the Children” Objection
Beliefs that gay and lesbian adults are not fit parents, or
that the psychosocial development of the children of gay
and lesbian parents is compromised, have no basis in
science. Our position is based on a review representing
approximately 50 empirical studies and at least another
50 articles and book chapters and does not rest on the
results of any one study
Canadian Psychological Association
The “Think of the Children” Objection
The family studies literature indicates that it is family processes
(such as the quality of parenting and relationships within the
family) that contribute to determining children’s wellbeing
and ‘outcomes’, rather than family structures, per se, such as
the number, gender, sexuality and co-habitation status of
parents. The research indicates that parenting practices and
children’s outcomes in families parented by lesbian and gay
parents are likely to be at least as favourable as those in
families of heterosexual parents, despite the reality that
considerable legal discrimination and inequity remain
significant challenges for these families.
Australian Psychological Association
The “Think of the Children” Argument
6. Same-sex "marriage" would undercut the norm of sexual
fidelity within marriage.
One of the biggest threats that same-sex "marriage" poses to
marriage is that it would probably undercut the norm of
sexual fidelity in marriage. In the first edition of his book in
defense of same-sex marriage, Virtually Normal, homosexual
commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote: "There is more likely to
be greater understanding of the need for extramarital outlets
between two men than between a man and a woman." Of
course, this line of thinking--were it incorporated into
marriage and telegraphed to the public in sitcoms, magazines,
and other mass media--would do enormous harm to the norm
of sexual fidelity in marriage.