"Homosexual activists have found the national media more than willing to promulgate reassuring images of wonderfully harmonious same-sex couples.  A new study of domestic violence, however, suggests that homosexual relations are far less pacific than activists are willing to acknowledge.

...Among the same-sex couples surveyed, a remarkable 56% reported that 'they had experienced one or more ... forms of domestic violence.' 

Further parsing of the data established that for homosexual men 'intimate physical violence is a greater problem ... than [for] heterosexual men' (p < 0.001).   The researchers further determined that intimate physical violence is at least as great a problem for homosexual women as it is for heterosexual women.  (Homosexual women reported a prevalence of intimate physical violence slightly above that reported by heterosexual women, but the difference was not statistically significant.)

The authors of the new study are not surprised by their findings; indeed, they interpret these findings as part of a pattern in which "repeated studies continue to find that same-sex domestic violence is a fairly prevalent problem." 

(Source: Excerpted from "Homosexual Harmony?" New Research, April 2005, an abstract of Stephen S. Owen and Tod W. Burke, "An Exploration of the Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships," Psychological Reports 95 [2004]: 129-132.)

[Anti-

"Representatives of [the American Psychiatric Association] approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of gay marriage.

...The statement supports same-sex marriage 'in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health,' [and] cites the 'positive influence of a stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members.'"

(Source:  Doug Gross, "Psychiatrists May Push for Gay Marriage OK," The Associated Press, May 22, 2005.)

Since they cannot by nature procreate, homosexuals have been pushing to change state laws to allow them to adopt children. Some have even argued that what makes for good parenting is not the gender complimentarity of parents, but the devotion of parents (or adoptive parents). While not all husband-wife couples make the best parents, a study by Tami M. Videon of Rutgers University highlighting the independent influence of fathers on the emotional health of adolescents suggests that child well-being depends not on the contributions of mothers or fathers, but upon the contribution of mothers and fathers.

Using the first two waves of data (1994-95 and 1996) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the professor of psychiatry examined the impact of father-adolescent relationships on depressive symptoms of more than 6,500 boys and girls from intact, two-parent families. In her first model, she found that higher levels of satisfaction with fathers are correlated with fewer depressive symptoms among both boys and girls (p <.001 for both).

These statistically significant relationships held true in her second model, which controlled for relationships with mothers (which also correlated inversely with depressive symptoms for boys and girls). The magnitude of the effects of the father-adolescent relationship were somewhat reduced in this model, "indicating that the mother and father relationship [each] explain a portion of the same variance in adolescent psychological well-being." At the same time, adds Videon, "the father-adolescent relationship has a significant influence on children's well-being beyond the impact of the mother- adolescent relationship."

While Videon clearly intents her research to demonstrate the shortcomings of single motherhood, her findings nonetheless also implies that gay adoption is not a good idea, as well.