Family Fact: Homosexual Adoptions

Family Quote: No Basis

Family Research Abstract: Gay ? Happy

"'[S]econd parent adoptions, which allow a second adult to assume responsibility for a child without the biological parent losing any rights, are legal for gay and lesbian couples in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and the District of Columbia. In a dozen other states, some local courts have backed such arrangements.

Four states - Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri - still ban sex between consenting homosexual adults, although the laws are rarely enforced. The U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 will consider a challenge to Texas' law. Eight states and about three dozen cities and counties - mostly on the East and West coasts - now provide benefits for the partners of their gay and lesbian public employees, gay-rights advocates say."

(Source: Joan Biskupic, "Same-sex couples redefining family law in USA," USA Today, February 17, 2003; http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-02-17-cover-samesex_x.htm.) 

"'[C]hildren with two parents of the same gender are as well adjusted as children with one of each kind.'

This view, revolutionary in its implications, and unheard of five years ago, is now commonly asserted by social scientists, lawyers, policymakers and the media. Numerous studies are routinely offered to show that the sexual orientation of a couple makes "no difference" to the well-being of children. The obvious implication of this view is that two gay "dads" or two lesbian "moms" can raise a child as well as can two married biological parents. Simply being surrounded by two caring adults is thought to be enough to raise most children to be healthy, well-adjusted adults. Is this claim true? Does the research supporting it stand up to scientific scrutiny? These are the questions discussed in this study. Our approach to this question concentrates on an analysis of the methodologies used to carry out existing same-sex parenting studies. We conclude that the methods used in these studies are so flawed that these studies prove nothing. Therefore, they should not be used in legal cases to make any argument about 'homosexual vs. heterosexual' parenting. Their claims have no basis." 

(Source: Lerner, Robert, and Nagai, Althea K., "No Basis: What the Studies Don't Tell Us About Same-Sex Parenting." Marriage Law Project, Washington DC. January 2001, p. 6; http://marriagelaw.cua.edu/secure/No%20Basis.pdf.) 

Using content analyses of six clinical studies examining the children of homosexual parents, Paul and Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute attempt to answer the following question: "Are the childhoods of children of homosexuals more difficult, and if so, does this greater difficulty appear in the published narratives of such children?" The researchers reply: "The answers to both questions appear to be 'yes.'"

Using material gleaned from the narratives of 52 homosexually parented families, along with case files from 40 appeals court cases involving custody disputes between homosexual and heterosexual parents, the authors were able to draw some significant conclusions as to the nature of childhood problems: "Children mentioned one or more problems or concerns in 48 (92%) of 52 families. Of the 213 score problems, 201 (94%) were attributed to the homosexual parent(s)." Indeed, in the appellate cases, 97% of the harms were attributed to the homosexual parent by the courts.

These are by no means merely abstract "harms"; these are problems with faces. From one twelve-year-old's narrative: "Mum...has had several girlfriends in my lifetime...I don't go around saying that I've got two mums...If we are sitting in a restaurant eating, she'll say, 'I want you to know about all these sex things'. And she'll go on about everything, just shouting it out...sometimes when mum embarrasses me, I think, 'Oh God, I wish I had a dad'..." Multiple permutations of children's embarrassment, harassment, and ostracism are to be found in these reports, and if this were all there was, it would be bad enough. Unfortunately, it is not all, as the boy continues, "...[I've b]een to every gay pride march. Last year, while attending we went up to a field..., when two men came up to us. One man started touching me. I didn't want to go this year because of that."

The researchers report, "Sixteen narratives mentioned parental encouragement to engage in homosexuality or parent-sponsored exposure to homosexuality."

The results of this sort of pressure are sadly predictable. In the family narratives that included adolescent or adult children, 30% of the children were either homosexual or had engaged in homosexual behavior. Furthermore, several children were "unsure" of their sexual orientation, and "[o]lder daughters in at least 8 (27%) of 30 families and older sons in at least 2 (20%) of 10 families described themselves as homosexual or bisexual."

In all six of the analyzed studies, the original authors had concluded that the childhoods of children of homosexual parents were "ordinary," that there are no significant differences between these children and those raised by heterosexual parents. In light of these findings, one has to wonder, with Cameron and Cameron, as to the "'ordinariness' of their lives that [these authors] reported."