Describe what current research has to say about the ability of gay and lesbian couples to parent children

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ample research suggests there is no basis for any speculation that gay/lesbian couples are less capable parents than their heterosexual counterparts. More than 90 percent of adult children of lesbian mothers or gay fathers develop a heterosexual orientation—a figure that is not different from the percentages of heterosexuals raised by heterosexual parents (see also Patterson, 2004). Furthermore, children of gay and lesbian parents are just as cognitively, emotionally, and morally mature, on average, and are otherwise as well adjusted as children of heterosexual parents (Chan, Raboy, & Patterson, 1998; Flaks et al., 1995; Golombok et al., 2003). And in respect to recent criticisms that children of gay and lesbian parents may be less appropriately gender typed (Stacey & Biblarz, 2001), Susan Golombok and her colleagues (2003) found only that boys from single-parent homes headed by mothers (the vast majority of whom were heterosexual) had less traditionally masculine activity preferences than boys raised by two parents, whether homosexual or heterosexual. Finally, gay fathers and lesbian mothers are every bit as knowledgeable about effective childrearing practices as heterosexual parents (Bigner & Jacobsen, 1989; Flaks et al., 1995), and partners of homosexual parents are usually attached to the children and assume caregiving responsibilities for their children.

In sum, there is no credible scientific evidence that would justify denying a person's rights of parenthood on the basis of his or her sexual orientation (Wainwright & Patterson, 2008). Children raised in gay and lesbian families are virtually indistinguishable from those raised by heterosexual couples.