We continue to make you acquanted with the science research on the subject – Gay parents are awesome. Second part of this research is available here.
At first glance, gay and lesbian parents have the same, theoretically, to offer a child that heterosexual parents do. They all bring intelligence, concern, discipline and love to the breakfast table. They all make sure homework is completed and send their children off to school with lunch in tow. Science projects get completed, and book reports are written without any discernible differences. The kids participate in school sports, and get suited up for extracurricular activities.
Although to the naked eye there is no apparent difference between the children raised by homosexual or heterosexual parents, science and research seem to show that when the layers of the parenting onion are peeled, the child reared in a same-sex household has been shown to have distinct advantages.
The limitations to most research done thus far, unfortunately, are created by basic anatomy. Two women, requiring only one of the pair to be fertile, will conceive a child with challenges, but with an obvious greater ease. As a result, many of the studies done in the past speak to the statistics of lesbian parenthood, and suggest the likely correlate for gay men.
Parents in love have always been documented to support a more stable and nurturing environment for a child. Although early research shows a lower divorce rate in same-sex couples than straight ones (1.1% vs. 2% per annum), the data culled by the Williams Institute, the think tank of UCLA’s School of Law, is somewhat affected by what they call the Windsor Effect. This effect is named after Windsor v. U.S., the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), legalizing gay marriage.
Prior to DOMA’s dissolution, the states that had legalized gay marriage were witnessing a decline in same-sex marriage rates, only to see a huge increase after the case was won. As a result, the Williams Institute dubbed the effect to describe this early calculation of a decreased same-sex dissolution rate. Only time will tell.
What will also be evident over time, is whether the positive impact of lesbian parentage will be echoed by data for gay male parents, as the male parenting data lags simply due to biology. It has been suggested that it is a not issue of if, but when, and that the impact of same-sex male parents may rise to superiority over all other two-parent households.
The positive outcomes of same-sex parenting thus far, however, have been best well documented in the arenas that we would expect.
It seems inherent to lesbian and gay men that children brought up learning equality and non-discriminatory values would become more accepting and open-minded young adults. In our nature, we teach what we know and believe. Hence, by living a life on the cusp of “societal norms,” we model roles, occupations, and belief systems that are more welcome to a wide variety of options.
As women and men who have struggled, and thus far overcome the growth pains in the fight for equality, we have, with the fire in our belly, learned resilience.
It is most clear that we have each looked into the face of adversity, and met it head on. We have developed strength and abilities we don’t always recognize in ourselves. Simply by loving and passing on what we have learned, gay and lesbian parents will undoubtedly continue to recognize the very same resilience in our offspring.
