Resolved: On Balance, Gay Marriage is Good

Observations Pro attacks my sources, calling them biased. However, Pro does not state how the methodology is flawed in any way for any of the studies. So therefore my FRC source and Regnerus are still valid, as I clearly showed a large sample size, and unbiased methodology of conducting the study. . http://www.usccb.org... Many sociologists conclude that children biologically need both parents. "Children raised in intact married families are more likely to attend college, are physically and emotionally healthier, are less likely to be physically or sexually abused, less likely to use drugs or alcohol and to commit delinquent behaviors, have a decreased risk of divorcing when they get married, are less likely to become pregnant/impregnate someone as a teenager, and are less likely to be raised in poverty. ("Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences," Bradford Wilcox, Institute for American Values, www. americanvalues. org/html/r-wmm. html) Children receive gender specific support from having a mother and a father. Research shows that particular roles of mothers (e. g. , to nurture) and fathers (e. g. , to discipline), as well as complex biologically rooted interactions, are important for the development of boys and girls. ("Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles," 2006, www. princetonprinciples. org) A child living with a single mother is 14 times more likely to suffer serious physical abuse than is a child living with married biological parents. A child whose mother cohabits with a man other than the child's father is 33 times more likely to suffer serious physical child abuse. ("The Positive Effects. .. ") In married families, about 1/3 of adolescents are sexually active. However, for teenagers in stepfamilies, cohabiting households, divorced families, and those with single unwed parents, the percentage rises above 1/2. ("The Positive Effects. .. ") Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the chance that children themselves will divorce or become unwed parents. ("26 Conclusions. .. " and "Marriage and the Public Good. .. ") * Children of divorce experience lasting tension as a result of the increasing differences in their parents' values and ideas. At a young age they must make mature decisions regarding their beliefs and values. Children of so called "good divorces" fared worse emotionally than children who grew up in an unhappy but "low-conflict'"marriage. ("Ten Findings from a National Study on the Moral and Spiritual Lives of Children of Divorce," Elizabeth Marquardt, www. betweentwoworlds. org)" Pro can't refute these facts. "Fathers play a particularly important role in prevention of drug use. A UCLA study concluded that, although "mothers are more active than fathers in helping youngsters with personal problems"with regard to youthful drug users, [the] father"s involvement is more important. " Among the homes with strict fathers, only 18 per cent used alcohol or drugs at all. In contrast, among mother-dominated homes, 35 per cent had children who used drugs frequently. " "A Canadian study of teenagers discharged from psychiatric hospitals found that only 16 per cent were living with both parents when they were admitted. From nations as diverse as Finland and South Africa, a number of studies have reported that anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent of psychiatric patients come from broken homes. " "Children from mother-only families are more likely to marry early and have children early, both in and out of wedlock, and are more likely to divorce. Also, age at the first marriage will be lower for the children of divorced parents who marry, when sex, age, and maternal education are controlled. " It is clear that both parents are necessary. Mothers and fathers parent in different ways that are necessary for the well being of the child. Here I have presented a multitude of evidence from unbiased sources proving this. Pro never refutes these statistics. "If Larry King has the freedom to be married seven times"shouldn"t a gay couple that has been together 30 years be able to get married once? " I am not calling for a ban or anything- just saying that on balance, heterosexual marriages result better for the kids. The Cinderella Effect This is the proven fact that step parents are generally worse than biological parents. Gay parents cannot reproduce and thus are step parents, adopting kids. . http://www.cep.ucsb.edu... "children under 5 years of age were beaten to death by their putative genetic fathers at a rate of 2.6 deaths per million child-years at risk (residing with their fathers) in 1974-1990, while the corresponding rate for stepfathers was over 120 times greater at 321.6 deaths per million child-years at risk (Daly & Wilson 2001). " "According to an analysis of the FBI"s Supplemetary Homicide Reports (SHR) case data by Weekes-Shackelford & Shackelford (2004), stepfathers beat children under 5 years old to death at a rate of 55.9 per million children at risk per annum, compared to 5.6 for genetic fathers. " . http://nobullying.com... . http://www.psych2go.net... "Wilson et al. (1980) analyzed child abuse data from an archive collating mandated reports from jurisdictions representing about half the U. S. population at the time and found that in 1976, 279 cases of "fatal physical abuse" involved 43% of the victims and their stepparents; this data, when combined with population-at-large estimates, can suggest estimates that stepchildren incurred fatal deaths resulting from abuse at about 100 times the rate for children of the same age living with both biological parents. "