Kids With Lesbian Parents Do Just Fine

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like omg.... why do we need parents anyway im 16 now i can take care of myslf i want my mother tostop calling me and give me a break

ashley of OR 6:45AM November 14, 2010

Why only 78 surveys when there were 154 participants? The scientist in me is skeptical.

nucmom of ND 5:53PM September 14, 2010

Gosh Karl do you mean to suggest that picking educated Caucasians for the study skewed the results - implying that white folks raise better adjusted kids. Or are you saying that southerners are less well equipped to raise children than north-easterners?

CG of GA 9:49PM July 12, 2010

As the grandfather of children of a gay relationship (lesbian) I must say that the circumstances of such planned results must be better than the average "straight" situation. These children are wished for and provided for thoughtfully in today's society.
When this is a more "normal" occasion and a broader cross-section of society participates in these new family structures, then we might see more "normal" results paralleling those of society at large.
But for the moment, these kids have the advantage of being "special" and getting the attention and education reserved for the few.
Thus my grandchildren are a wonderful result of such a productive relationship.

Erich Stratmann of CA 1:51AM July 12, 2010

My sister is straight, white, educated and has been married and divorced FIVE times. She has four children by four different husbands and considers herself a Born-Again. She keeps getting married because her church/religion demands it. Personally I think she should have stopped after husband #3. Her children, all except the oldest who was raised by our parents, are a mess -- in school and out -- as most of the her children's fathers are losers and not involved in their day-to-day rearing.
Good parents are good parents regardless of sexual orientation. Being straight and married doesn't mean you will be a good parent or even a good role model for your kids -- my sister proves that.
(fyi, I'm straight and just jumping in to show that straight folks can mess up their kids too).

HB of CA 12:48PM July 04, 2010

There is even more info that this "study" is anything but that. Instead it is a propaganda piece fomented by a lesbian researcher with an agenda.
1. The lesbian couples were 93% Caucasian, 67% college-educated, mostly middle- and upper-class, almost all professional or managers (85 percent), and an average income of $85,000 or more and located in the Northeastern part of the country.
The hetero couples had far more minorities, their income was far less, they had far fewer college-educated couples and most were located in the South.
2. Just to reiterate: the lesbian couples were recruited (hand-picked) for the study, told what the study was about, while the hetero couples were picked at random and NOT informed as to the study's intent.
The lesbian mothers reported their kids responses, while the hetero couples information was gathered in a totally different way.
One psychological researcher (who is critical of the study) noted:
"[the control group was] very different in race composition, socio-economic status of participants, and region of the country.”
When you hand-pick the treatment group for exactly the kind of people you want, and then "randomly" pick the control group for exactly the kind of people you *don't* want, and then allow the treatment group to self-report their own results, is it any wonder they got exactly the results they wanted?

Karl Williamson of CA 7:18AM June 23, 2010

More info is coming in about this very unscientific study:
1. All the data was self-reported by the mothers. No educators were contacted, no report cards observed, no third-party input whatsoever. The parents knew what the study was about and they wanted the study to show that they were good parents and their kids are well-adjusted. So how in the world could this study be unbiased? Answer: it can't.
2. The *mothers* told the researchers what their children's level of happiness, social performance and functioning was, not the children, for most of the study's existence. In the latter phase of the study, the children filled out forms to "report" their happiness, social adjustment and functioning, but they filled them out at home! No researcher interviewed the children individually! So, the mothers easily could have filled the info out themselves, or coerced the responses from the children. Most of the data about the kids was reported by the mothers, completely contaminating the data.
3. The researchers used no proven, accepted psychological testing instruments to test the children to measure happiness, functioning and ability. They didn't test them at ALL. They simply asked the mothers if the children were happy and adjusted, and later the kids simply answered these questions with yes and no answers. What kid is going to say he isn't happy and adjusted when the moms and the researchers are both incredibly anxious to have this study results support what they want to prove? This is a fundamental error in the study. The children and mothers both should have been independently tested with psychological instruments, tests like the MMPI should have been administered to tease out accurate data, instead of simply asking mothers to report how happy and adjusted their children are.
4. The lesbian couples were recruited and told what the study was about, the hetero couples were NOT! This is the grossest flaw in the study. It's not even a "flaw", it is a deliberate move to skew the data. If the hetero couples would have been informed as to the study's intent, they might well have reported more positively to skew the data, as it is obvious the lesbian parents did.
5. Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the leader of the study is a lesbian who is married to Dee Moshbacker, Ph.D., a psychiatrist and lesbian activist/filmmaker. Both women have been activists for lesbians to adopt children for many, many years. Are these the people to conduct this study? Is it probable that the study was engineered to obtain the results they desired to further their agenda? You be the judge.
6. Over HALF of the lesbian couples broke up less than five years after the study started. Everyone knows that the break-up of a family is hurtful to children, yet the "research" shows no problems in the children of these broken homes. That alone proves the study is bogus, because the overwhelming evidence is these break-up are damaging for children. All divorced parents and kids know this.

Karl Williamson of CA 5:09AM June 23, 2010

First of all, they *recruited* (by their own language) the lesbian parents for the study, and the results are based upon self-reporting. Uh, do ya think that maybe the lesbian parents and the children might be fudging to skew the data? Can you imagine how important it is to these lesbian parents that they are seen as good parents? Might they not influence their children's responses? Please!
Do a study where you pick *at random* various children of lesbian parents and *do not* tell them what the study is about, then you will get some accurate data. However, if you recruit the lesbian parents and inform them ahead of time what the study is measuring and then allow the data to be self-reporting, how in the WORLD do you expect that the data will be unbiased? Lol!
Just look at the language of the data collected:
"...mothers were very committed, involved and loving. The 17-year-old adolescents are healthy, happy and high-functioning,"
Are the mothers going to report that they aren't committed, involved or loving? Would the kids report that they aren't healthy, happy or high-functioning? No way.
Also, how did they recruit the hetero couples? How did they recruit the lesbian couples? Did they inform EACH that the study was comparing parenting skills between lesbians and heteros? Did they inform each that the study was comparing the "health, happiness and functioning" of the children of lesbians and heteros?
I have a prediction: this study is going to be eviscerated by experts when they examine the protocols and procedures. It is abundantly clear that the researchers had an agenda going in, to prove that lesbian parents were "better" than hetero parents, and they manipulated the circumstances to obtain that result. When other researchers take a critical look at the study and results, I believe they will discover overwhelming evidence of bias, manipulation of the data and out-and-out fabrication.
I have no prejudices concerning lesbian parents, however I have been involved in providing free counseling in my community for many years and I have seen quite a few families with one or more gay parents, and I can assure you that the actuality is very, very different from the study. Gay relationships - including lesbian ones - tend to be much more tumultuous than hetero ones. There is a much higher break-up rate, and many more problems with the children in these homes. How much of that is due to society's stigma toward homosexuality is unclear, but it is most definitely a factor. I have spoken to many colleagues across this country and they report similar findings. So, this study simply contradicts the truth that therapists working with these families find. The difference between the information I have collected and the information these researchers collected is, the information I cited is empirical and their data is "self-reported", by their own admission.
All this study does is negate the truth of the plight of children in these families.

Karl Williamson of CA 4:39AM June 23, 2010