In CWN
An extensive new study of children raised by same-sex parents has
discovered a pattern of significant negative outcomes, raising serious
questions about previous studies that claimed homosexual couples were
equally successful parents.
“The empirical claim that no notable differences exist must go,” Mark
Regnerus, a University of Texas professor who conducted the new study,
which was published in the journal Social Science Research. His
data, he said, showed that “children appear most apt to succeed well as
adults when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother
and father, and especially when the parents remain married to the
present day.”
In fact, in an unusually thorough study of nearly 3,000 young adult
Americans, Regnerus found that in comparison with children of
traditional families, those raised by lesbian couples had negative
outcomes in 24 out of 40 test categories. Those raised by homosexual men
had negative outcomes in 19 categories.
A separate study, also published in Social Science Research,
found serious shortcoming in earlier studies that had found no
difficulties with same-sex parenting. Loren Marks of Louisiana State
University found that the earlier studies had been marred by small
sample sizes, biased selection of subjects, and a narrow definition of
outcomes that did not include factors such as the children’s educational
performance, employment, involvement in crime or drug abuse.
