Pediatricians debunk right-wing rhetoric about LGBT parents

[kweerwolf]

One of the most frequently cited arguments made by opponents of same-sex marriage is that there is conflicting evidence about whether gay and lesbian people make good parents.

Back in January 2004 Focus on the Family took out a full-page ad in The Boston Globe calling gay parenting "an unproven social experiment" and citing research that supposedly bolsters that claim. In June of that year Governor Mitt Romney told an audience at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., that one of his primary objections to same-sex marriage is the effect on children, saying, "This is far too important a topic to be left to social experimentation," according to an account in the Globe.

Those critics should breathe a sigh of relief. According to Dr. Ellen Perrin, professor of pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children, Tufts-New England Medical Center, the unproven social experiment is over, the results are in, and lesbian parents pass with flying colors.

Perrin presented an overview of 15 different studies on the children of lesbian parents, as well as one study on gay male parents, at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) earlier this month. The study on gay male parenting, published in 1989, showed that gay fathers showed the same involvement and intimacy with their children as heterosexual fathers, but there is not enough research for those findings to be conclusive. The studies on lesbian parenting, on the other hand, took place over the past two decades and looked at more than 450 children being raised either by a lesbian parent or a lesbian couple. The studies, which were all peer-reviewed, showed that those children were identical to their peers from heterosexual families in terms of self-esteem, peer relationships, gender-typical behaviors, self-esteem, and prevalence of psychiatric disorders.

http://www.baywindows.com/media/paper328/news/2005/10/27/News/Damned.Lies.And.Statistics-1035260.shtml

[rodeodance]

1. there are other studies saying the same thing. Problem is--the RW

YELLs their smut often and often and over and over.

[havocmom]

2. Shout 'em down with the fact that ONLY hetro unions produce gay kids

If ya can't convince 'em, confuse 'em ;)

[mzmolly]

3. That's a good comeback!

:freak: Their ears will smoke!



:popcorn:

[MsUnderstood]

4. Personal experience with this mind set

My daughter's best friend's parents are conservative. Well the mom is conservative and the Dad is a freeper wingnut.

Since I'm already on the road to personal attacks let me describe him. The family has 4 kids (2 in diapers), he has a business that keeps him out til 11:00 PM (or so he claims) he drinks every night, and the business is failing so the family relies solely on the Mom's income. On the weekends he has a hobby of racing cars locally that keeps him out of the house.

In conclusion, he isn't "around" too much for the kids, including the eldest (13 years old) who takes on the burden of being the family baby sitter to the diapered sisters. When he is around, he likes to slap the eldest for fighting with her younger brother (whom he favors).

I don't get involved in that--you raise your family, I'll raise mine. . .until my daughter hears from her best friend that Dad told the best friend that my daughter was jealous of her best friend's family life and that my daughter was lucky to get to hang out with that family for the moral guidance and paternal influence.

When the freeper mindset creeps into the mind of your 13 year old via myths of parental needs, that is when the freeper mindset hurts the worst.