Gay Families & Affected Kids

(Community Matters) a new UT study evidently funded by the Family Research Council affiliated Witherspoon Institute – quite disturbing study results.   National LGBT organizations say flawed science.

The study appears to ignore the bias of children from broken homes and those consistently raised by two parents (of either configuration). Obviously, 20 – 40 years ago, most children of LGBT parents came from broken homes, which is not the case today. Good gosh, 20 – 40 years ago, same sex families were even illegal in many states.

Google search of Witherspoon Institute which I’m told funded the study shows it is a conservative think tank with ties to the Family Research Council and “Roman Catholic traditionalists”.

a google search of the study’s author, UT Associate Professor of Sociology Mark Regnerus, is the co-author of “Premarital Sex in America,” which an article in the New York Times cites as supporting abstinence-based sex education.

A friend pointed out this NYTimes blog posting

a growing body of research indicates that no other parental arrangement, from single motherhood to cohabitation to shared custody, affords as many social, economic and emotional advantages as being raised by two biological parents joined in a lifelong commitment. . . . a number of  studies have suggested that gay parenting may be an exception to this rule, and that the outcomes of children raised by homosexual couples may be identical to children raised by married biological parents. Identical, or even better: One high-profile recent study marshaled evidence that children of lesbian households, in particular, may have advantages over the children of straight couples.

photo: Assoc Prof Mark Regnerus