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LGBT parenting refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people parenting one or more children. This includes children raised by same-sex couples (same-sex parenting), children raised by single LGBT parents, and children raised by an opposite-sex couple where at least one partner is LGBT.

LGBT people can become parents through various means including current or former relationships, coparenting, adoption, donor insemination, and surrogacy.

Scientific research has been generally consistent in showing that gay and lesbian parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents. Major associations of mental health professionals in the U.S., Canada, and Australia have not identified credible empirical research that suggests otherwise. Based on the robust nature of the evidence available in the field, the Third District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida was satisfied in 2010 that the issue is so far beyond dispute that it would be irrational to hold otherwise, and concluded that the best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption.

Forms of LGBT parenting

LGBT people can become parents through various means including current or former relationships, coparenting, adoption, foster care, donor insemination, and surrogacy. A gay man or lesbian may have children within an opposite-sex relationship, such as a mixed-orientation marriage, for various reasons.

Some children do not know they have an LGBT parent; coming out issues vary and some parents may never reveal to their children that they identify as LGBT.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are parents. In the 2000 U.S. Census, for example, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under the age of 18 living in the home. As of 2005, an estimated 270,313 children in the United States live in households headed by same-sex couples.

Economic resources and home ownership

According to US Census Snapshot published in December 2007, same-sex couples with children have significantly fewer economic resources and significantly lower rates of home ownership than heterosexual married couples.

Children’s outcomes

In the United States, studies on the effect of gay and lesbian parenting on children were first conducted in the 1970s, and expanded through the 1980s in the context of increasing numbers of gay and lesbian parents seeking legal custody of their biological children. The widespread pattern of children being raised from infancy in two-parent gay or lesbian homes is relatively recent.

Consensus

The scientific research that has directly compared outcomes for children with gay and lesbian parents with outcomes for children with heterosexual parents has been generally consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents, despite the reality that considerable legal discrimination and inequity remain significant challenges for these families. Major associations of mental health professionals in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, have not identified credible empirical research that suggests otherwise. Literature indicates that parents’ financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally-recognized union.

Since the 1970s, it has become increasingly clear that it is family processes (such as the quality of parenting, the psychosocial well-being of parents, the quality of and satisfaction with relationships within the family, and the level of co-operation and harmony between parents) that contribute to determining children’s well-being and ‘outcomes’, rather than family structures, per se, such as the number, gender, sexuality and co-habitation status of parents. Since the end of the 1980s, as a result, it has been well established that children and adolescents can adjust just as well in nontraditional settings as in traditional settings.

Judith Stacey, of New York University, stated: “Rarely is there as much consensus in any area of social science as in the case of gay parenting, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics and all of the major professional organizations with expertise in child welfare have issued reports and resolutions in support of gay and lesbian parental rights”. These organizations include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the Child Welfare League of America, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, and Canadian Psychological Association. In 2006, Gregory M. Herek stated in American Psychologist: "If gay, lesbian, or bisexual parents were inherently less capable than otherwise comparable heterosexual parents, their children would evidence problems regardless of the type of sample. This pattern clearly has not been observed. Given the consistent failures in this research literature to disprove the null hypothesis, the burden of empirical proof is on those who argue that the children of sexual minority parents fare worse than the children of heterosexual parents."

Studies and analyses include Bridget Fitzgerald's 1999 analysis of the research on gay and lesbian parenting, published in Marriage and Family Review, which found that the available studies generally concluded that "the sexual orientation of parents is not an effective or important predictor of successful childhood development" and Gregory M. Herek's 2006 analysis in American Psychologist, which said, "Despite considerable variation in the quality of their samples, research design, measurement methods, and data analysis techniques, the findings to date have been remarkably consistent. Empirical studies comparing children raised by sexual minority parents with those raised by otherwise comparable heterosexual parents have not found reliable disparities in mental health or social adjustment. Differences have not been found in parenting ability between lesbian mothers and heterosexual mothers. Studies examining gay fathers are fewer in number but do not show that gay men are any less fit or able as parents than heterosexual men. In June 2010, the results of a 25-year ongoing longitudinal study by Nanette Gartrell of the University of California and Henny Bos of the University of Amsterdam were released. Gartrell and Bos studied 78 children conceived through donor insemination and raised by lesbian mothers. Mothers were interviewed and given clinical questionnaires during pregnancy when their children were 2, 5, 10, and 17 years of age. In the abstract of the report, the authors state: "According to their mothers' reports, the 17-year-old daughters and sons of lesbian mothers were rated significantly higher in social, school/academic, and total competence and significantly lower in social problems, rule-breaking, aggressive, and externalizing problem behavior than their age-matched counterparts in Achenbach's normative sample of American youth."

School outcomes

Until 2010, research on school outcomes for the children of same-sex couples was limited to studies on small samples studies, and meta-analyses thereof. The first large sample study based on US nationally representative data confirmed that "children raised by same-sex couples have no fundamental deficits in making normal progress through school." Gartrell and Bos's longitudinal study of children of lesbian mothers found that these children did better in school than their counterparts.

Sexual orientation of children

A number of studies have examined whether the children of lesbian and gay parents are themselves more likely to identify as lesbian and gay. While reviews of the available studies agree that the vast majority of children of lesbian and gay parents are heterosexual, they differ in regards to whether there is evidence to suggest a comparatively higher rate of homosexuality when compared to the children of heterosexual parents. In a 2001 review of 21 studies, Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz found that researchers frequently downplay findings indicating difference regarding children's gender, sexual preferences and behavior, suggesting that an environment of heterosexism has hampered scientific inquiry in the area. Their findings indicate that the children with lesbian or gay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and are more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships. A 2005 review by Charlotte J. Patterson for the American Psychological Association found that the available data did not suggest higher rates of homosexuality among the children of lesbian or gay parents. Herek's 2006 review describes the available data on the point as limited. Stacey and Biblarz and Herek stress that the sexual orientation of children is of limited relevance to discussions of parental fitness or policies based on the same. In a 2010 review comparing single-father families with other family types, Stacey and Biblarz state, "We know very little yet about how parents influence the development of their children's sexual identities or how these intersect with gender."

Methodology

Studies of LGBT parenting have sometimes suffered from small and/or non-random samples and inability to implement all possible controls, due to the small LGBT population and to cultural and social obstacles to identifying as an LGBT parent.

A 1993 review published in the Journal of Divorce & Remarriage identified fourteen studies addressing the effects of homosexual parenting on children. The review concluded that all of the studies lacked external validity and that therefore: "The conclusion that there are no significant differences in children reared by lesbian mothers versus heterosexual mothers is not supported by the published research data base."

Fitzgerald's 1999 analysis explained some methodological difficulties:

Many of these studies suffer from similar limitations and weaknesses, with the main obstacle being the difficulty in acquiring representative, random samples on a virtually invisible population. Many lesbian and gay parents are not open about their sexual orientation due to real fears of discrimination, homophobia, and threats of losing custody of their children. Those who do participate in this type of research are usually relatively open about their homosexuality and, therefore, may bias the research towards a particular group of gay and lesbian parents.

Because of the inevitable use of convenience samples, sample sizes are usually very small and the majority of the research participants end up looking quite homogeneous—e.g. white, middle-class, urban, and well-educated. Another pattern is the wide discrepancy between the number of studies conducted with children of gay fathers and those with lesbian mothers...

Another potential factor of importance is the possibility of social desirability bias when research subjects respond in ways that present themselves and their families in the most desirable light possible. Such a phenomenon does seem possible due to the desire of this population to offset and reverse negative images and discrimination. Consequently, the findings of these studies may be patterned by self-presentation bias.

According to a 2001 review of 21 studies by Stacey and Biblarz published in American Sociological Review: "esearchers lack reliable data on the number and location of lesbigay parents with children in the general population, there are no studies of child development based on random, representative samples of such families. Most studies rely on small-scale, snowball and convenience samples drawn primarily from personal and community networks or agencies. Most research to date has been conducted on white lesbian mothers who are comparatively educated, mature, and reside in relatively progressive urban centers, most often in California or the Northeastern states." A 2006 story in the Los Angeles Times notes that "investigators acknowledge the field is too young, the numbers too few, the variables too many and the research too values-laden to qualify as definitive."

In more recent studies, many of these issues have been resolved due to factors such as the changing social climate for LGBT people.

Herek's paper in American Psychologist stated:

The overall methodological sophistication and quality of studies in this domain have increased over the years, as would be expected for any new area of empirical inquiry. More recent research has reported data from probability and community-based convenience samples, has used more rigorous assessment techniques, and has been published in highly respected and widely cited developmental psychology journals, including Child Development and Developmental Psychology. Data are increasingly available from prospective studies. In addition, whereas early study samples consisted mainly of children originally born into heterosexual relationships that subsequently dissolved when one parent came out as gay or lesbian, recent samples are more likely to include children conceived within a same-sex relationship or adopted in infancy by a same-sex couple. Thus, they are less likely to confound the effects of having a sexual minority parent with the consequences of divorce.

In a 2009 affidavit filed in the case Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Michael Lamb, a professor of psychology and head of Department of Social and Developmental Psychology at Cambridge University, stated:

The methodologies used in the major studies of same-sex parenting meet the standards for research in the field of developmental psychology and psychology generally. The studies specific to same-sex parenting were published in leading journals in the field of child and adolescent development, such as Child Development, published by the Society for Research in Child Development, Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, and The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the flagship peer-review journals in the field of child development. Most of the studies appeared in these (or similar) rigorously peer-reviewed and highly selective journals, whose standards represent expert consensus on generally accepted social scientific standards for research on child and adolescent development. Prior to publication in these journals, these studies were required to go through a rigorous peer-review process, and as a result, they constitute the type of research that members of the respective professions consider reliable. The body of research on same-sex families is consistent with standards in the relevant fields and produces reliable conclusions."

Gartrell and Bos's 25-year longitudinal study, published 2010, was limited to mothers who sought donor insemination and who may have been more motivated than mothers in other circumstances. Gartrell and Bos note that the study's limitations included utilizing a non-random sample, and the lesbian group and control group were not matched for race or area of residence. The study was supported by grants from the Gill Foundation, the Lesbian Health Fund of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, Horizons Foundation, and the Roy Scrivner Fund of the American Psychological Foundation.

Michael J. Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, wrote in a 2010 study published in Demography that " critique of the literature—that the sample sizes of the studies are too small to allow for statistically powerful tests—continues to be relevant." Rosenfeld's study, "the first to use large-sample nationally representative data," found that children of same-sex couples demonstrated normal outcomes in school. "The core finding here," reports the study," offers a measure of validation for the prior, and much-debated, small-sample studies."

According to report by American Psychological Association: "In summary, research on diversity among families with lesbian and gay parents and on the potential effects of such diversity on children is still sparse (Martin, 1993, 1998; Patterson, 1995b, 2000, 2001, 2004; Perrin, 2002; Stacey & Biblarz, 2001; Tasker, 1999). Data on children of parents who identify as bisexual are still not available, and information about children of non-White lesbian or gay parents is hard to find (but see Wainright et al., 2004, for a racially diverse sample)... However, the existing data are still limited, and any conclusions must be seen as tentative... It should be acknowledged that research on lesbian and gay parents and their children, though no longer new, is still limited in extent. Although studies of gay fathers and their children have been conducted (Patterson, 2004), less is known about children of gay fathers than about children of lesbian mothers. Although studies of adolescent and young adult offspring of lesbian and gay parents are available (e.g., Gershon et al., 1999; Tasker & Golombok, 1997; Wainright et al., 2004), relatively few studies have focused on the offspring of lesbian or gay parents during adolescence or adulthood." In 2010 American Psychological Association, The California Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy stated: "Relatively few studies have directly examined gay fathers, but those that exist find that gay men are similarly fit and able parents, as compared to heterosexual men. Available empirical data do not provide a basis for assuming gay men are unsuited for parenthood. If gay parents were inherently unfit, even small studies with convenience samples would readily detect it. This has not been the case. Being raised by a single father does not appear to inherently disadvantage children’s psychological wellbeing more than being raised by a single mother. Homosexuality does not constitute a pathology or deficit, and there is no theoretical reason to expect gay fathers to cause harm to their children. Thus, although more research is needed, available data place the burden of empirical proof on those who argue that having a gay father is harmful."

Misrepresentation of research by opponents of LGBT rights

In a 2006 statement the Canadian Psychological Association released an updated statement on their 2003 and 2005 conclusions, saying, "The CPA recognizes and appreciates that persons and institutions are entitled to their opinions and positions on this issue. However, CPA is concerned that some persons and institutions are mis-interpreting the findings of psychological research to support their positions, when their positions are more accurately based on other systems of belief or values." The association drew attention to Herek’s extensive 2006 review of relevant literature, which concluded that the research on which opponents to marriage of same-sex couples rely, look at the functioning of children in intact families with heterosexual parents compared to those children raised by a single parent following divorce or death of a spouse. They do not include studies that compare the functioning of children raised by heterosexual couples with the functioning of children raised by same-sex couples. In this group of studies, any differences observed are more accurately attributable to the effects of death or divorce, and/or to the effects of living with a single parent, rather than to parents’ sexual orientation. These studies do not tell us that the children of same-sex parents in an intact relationship fare worse than the children of opposite-sex parents in an intact relationship.

According to the American Psychological Association, California Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, National Association of Social Workers and National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter, it is critically important to make appropriate comparisons when comparing the outcomes of different forms of parenting. For example, differences resulting from the number of parents in a household cannot be attributed to the parents’ gender or sexual orientation. Research in households with heterosexual parents generally finds that – all else being equal – children do better with two parenting figures rather than just one. The specific research studies cited do not address parents’ sexual orientation, however, and therefore do not permit any conclusions to be drawn about the consequences of having heterosexual versus nonheterosexual parents, or two parents who are of the same versus different genders. According to the Maine Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics, "It is scientifically untenable to use studies about the effects on children of divorce or being raised in one parent households, to draw conclusions about the children raised in two parents households whether the parents are same or opposite-sex gender."

Legal issues

Adoption

Several countries allow same-sex couples to adopt children, while most jurisdictions prohibit them from doing so. Some jurisdictions limit adoption by same-sex couples to stepparent adoption, where one partner in a same-sex couple can legally adopt the children of the partner. Adoption by individual LGBT persons is also legal in some jurisdictions.

In January 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that same-sex couples have the right to adopt a child. Unmarried LGBT adults can petition to adopt a child in all US states. Granting the petition is left to the discretion of a judge.

Marriage

Same-sex parenting is often raised as an issue in debates about the legalization of same-sex marriage. Proponents of same-sex marriage argue that same-sex couples and their children should receive equal benefit from marriage laws. Opponents of same-sex marriage argue that same-sex marriage will lead to an increase in adoption of children.

Controversy

NARTH and American College of Pediatricians (a conservative organization; not to be confused with American Academy of Pediatrics) argue that mainstream health and mental health organizations have, in many cases, taken public positions on parenting by same-sex couples that are based on their own social and political views rather than the available science. The American Psychological Association and the Royal College of Psychiatrists expressed concerns that the positions espoused by NARTH are not supported by the science and create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish. The National Association of Social Workers described the College as a "small faction", and "out of step with the research-based position of the AAP and other medical and child welfare authorities." Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health was disturbed to that The American College of Pediatricians distorted his scientific observations to make a point against homosexuality pulling language out of context from a book he wrote in 2006 to support an ideology that can cause unnecessary anguish and encourage prejudice. According to Collins, the information they present is misleading and incorrect. Other researchers who found that ACP misrepresented their work include Warren Throckmorton and Gary Remafedi.

Some critics of LGBT parenting cite a research brief published by Child Trends, an organization which describes itself as "the nation’s only independent research and policy center focused exclusively on improving outcomes for children," for the proposition that an "extensive body of research tells us that children do best when they grow up with both biological parents in a low-conflict marriage" and that because studies show "children growing up with stepparents also have lower levels of well-being than children growing up with biological parents" they conclude "it is not simply the presence of two parents...but the presence of two biological parents that seems to support child development." Such critics also cite a policy brief from the Center for Law and Social Policy, which states: "most researchers now agree that together these studies support the notion that, on average, children do better when raised by two married, biological parents." A similar conclusion was disputed in Perry v. Brown, in which Judge Vaughn Walker found that the available studies on stepchildren do not isolate "the genetic relationship between a parent and a child as a variable to be tested" and only compare "children raised by married, biological parents with children raised by single parents, unmarried mothers, step families and cohabiting parents," and thus "compare various family structures and do not emphasize biology." Perry also cited studies showing that "adopted children or children conceived using sperm or egg donors are just as likely to be well-adjusted as children raised by their biological parents." The specific Coleman et al. (2000) review article cited by Child Trends discussed a variety of possible explanations that had been postulated for the difference in outcomes for stepchildren, including "stress models" (such as the stress of "parental remarriage and cohabitation"), reduced "stepparent involvement" (due to parental focus on the new adult relationship, a possible evolutionary impetus to invest in biological children, and resistance of mothers and children to the intrusion of a new father into their relationship), and "selection" (pre-existing factors correlated with parental separation), but the authors report a mix of evidence for and against the various explanations.

Setting aside the issue of moral objections, Stephen Hicks, a reader in health and social care at the University of Salford questions the value of trying to establish that lesbian or gay parents are defective or suitable. He argues such positions are flawed because they are informed by ideologies that either oppose or support such families. In Hicks' view, "Instead of asking whether gay parenting is bad for kids, I think we should ask how contemporary discourses of sexuality maintain the very idea that lesbian and gay families are essentially different and, indeed, deficient. But, in order to ask this, I think that we need a wider range of research into lesbian and gay parenting... More work of this sort will help us to ask more complex questions about forms of parenting that continue to offer some novel and challenging approaches to family life."

Gregory M. Herek noted that "empirical research can’t reconcile disputes about core values, but it is very good at addressing questions of fact. Policy debates will be impoverished if this important source of knowledge is simply dismissed as a “he said, she said” squabble."

See also

Social

• Coparenting
• LGBT adoption
• Same-sex marriage and the family
• Surrogacy
• Third party reproduction

Medical:

• Artificial insemination
• Assisted reproductive technology
• In vitro fertilisation
• Sperm donation

Regional:

• Same-sex adoption in Brazil

References

1. ^ Children with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Parents
2. ^ Berkowitz, D & Marsiglio, W (2007). Gay Men: Negotiating Procreative, Father, and Family Identities. Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (May 2007): 366–381
3. ^ Marriage of Same-Sex Couples – 2006 Position Statement Canadian Psychological Association
4. ^ "Elizabeth Short, Damien W. Riggs, Amaryll Perlesz, Rhonda Brown, Graeme Kane: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Parented Families – A Literature Review prepared for The Australian Psychological Society" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-11-05.
5. ^ Brief of the American Psychological Association, The California Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy as Amici Curiae in support of plaintiff-appellees Cite error: The named reference "amici2010" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. ^ Pawelski JG, Perrin EC, Foy JM; et al. (2006). "The effects of marriage, civil union, and domestic partnership laws on the health and well-being of children". Pediatrics. 118 (1): 349–64. doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1279. PMID 16818585. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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8. ^ How Does the Gender of Parents Matter
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10. Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida - September 22, 2010 (PDF):
11. Butler, Katy (March 7, 2006). "Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of 'Brokeback' Marriages". New York Times.
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13. Gay, Mormon, married
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17. The Married Lesbian
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21. ^ Williams Institute: Census Snapshot – United States
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23. ^ Michael Lamb, Affidavit – United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (2009)
24. Canadian Psychological Association: Marriage of Same-Sex Couples – 2006 Position Statement Canadian Psychological Association
25. cited in Cooper & Cates, 2006, p. 36; citation available on http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf
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27. Sexual Orientation, Parents, & Children
28. Position Statement on Gay and Lesbian Parenting
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31. NACAC Position Statements
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41. Dr. Dan Summers, American Academy of Pediatrics, Maine Chapter
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62. ^ Hicks, Stephen (2005). "Is Gay Parenting Bad for Kids? Responding to the 'Very Idea of Difference' in Research on Lesbian and Gay Parents". Sexualities. 8 (2): 165. doi:10.1177/1363460705050852. Cite error: The named reference "Hicks" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
63. LA Times on Lesbian/Gay Parents: He Said/She Said?

External links

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Parented Families – A Literature Review prepared for The Australian Psychological Society (2007)
• Equal Family Blog
• Too High a Price – The Case Against Restricting Gay Parenting (updated second edition) (2006), a publication by the ACLU, includes a detailed review of studies and research.
• American Psychological Association (APA) Public Interest Directorate: Research Summary on Lesbian and Gay Parenting (2005)
• Brief presented to the Legislative House of Commons Committee on Bill C38 By the Canadian Psychological Association (2005)
• Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle
• Resources for Gay Dads
• Family Equality Council, the only organization that focuses specifically on supporting LGBT-headed families
• It's Conceivable provides LGBTQ parents with advice, resources, support and stories of other gay parents

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