From: exukev@exu.ericsson.se (Kevin Autrey)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Studies Say Children of Gays Not Troubled
Date: 21 Dec 92 17:07:57 GMT
Reply-To: exukev@exu.ericsson.se (Kevin Autrey)
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems
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As seen in the 12/8/92 Dallas Morning News:

<< Studies Say Children Of Gays Not Troubled >>

by Daniel Goleman
New York Times News Service

Michael McCandish is 12, spends five nights a week with his mother and
two with his step-mother.  And every now and then, he spends time with
his Dad.

But even in this day of ever-mutating family ties, Michael's situation
is unusual.  Although his mother, Dr. Barbara McCandish, is his
biological mother, the woman he calls his stepmom was his mother's
lesbian lover and co-parent until they separated when Michael was 5.

Michael's dad is his biological father, a gay man who was an anonymous
sperm doner at the time Michael was conceived, but whom Michael has
since gotten to know.

Michael, a sixth-grader in Santa Fe, NM, is on his school's basketball
team, plays in Little League baseball and is a snowboarding
enthusiast.

Does Michael feel uncomfortable with his unorthodox parents?  "It's
never been a problem," Michael said.  "I've always been pretty open
about it, and I don't worry about it."

According to a review of new studies in the current issue of the
journal Child Development, children are raised by gay parents are no
more likely to have psychological problems than those raised in more
conventional circumstances.

There are no overall psychological disadvantages for children such as
Michael in being raised by gays or lesbians, the studies show,
although the children may face teasing or ridicule, especially during
adolescence.

That conclusion challenges a view long held by some mental health
specialists.  The prevailing view has been reflected in court rulings
in custody disputes around the country where judges, even more than
psychotherapists, have assumed that being raised by gay or lesbian
parents is damaging to a child's emotional and sexual development.

As a result, gay and lesbian parents have great difficulty winning
custody of their children from a heterosexual partner in divorce
proceedings.

In recent years, though, the scientific consensus has begun to change,
as more and more experts conclude it is based on anecdotal reports and
biased research rather than scientifically gathered evidence.  New
studies dome to different conclusions.

"What evidence there is suggest there are no particular developmental
or emotional deficits for children raised by gay or lesbian parents,"
said Dr. Michael E. Lamb, chief of the Section on Social and Emotional
Development at the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development.  "The research is still relatively sparse, but it all
suggests the same thing: These kids look OK."

Estimates of the number of children being raised by gay and lesbian
parents range from 6 million to 14 million, in at least 4 million
households.  ALthough these estimates, from sources such as the
American Bar Association, may seem high, those who make them point out
that the majority of such families are "invisible," in that few
outsiders realize there is a gay or lesbian parent.  Sometimes the
children themselves do not know until they are teen-agers.

"The great majority of gay and lesbian parents are not out in the open
about it," said Tim Fisher, directory of Communications for Gay and
Lesbian Parents Coalition International in Washington, which has 40
chapters in the United States and Canada.  There are at least 100
other informal support groups for gay and lesbian parents in the
country, Mr. Fisher said.

In the large majority of such households the children were conceived
in heterosexual marriages that ended in divorce after one parent came
out as homosexual.  In recent years, families in which children are
conceived or adopted by gay couples are growing more common.

Early research suggesting that gays and lesbians made bad parents were
largely based on individual case studies of troubled children.

"There is no adverse effect on any psychological measure," said Dr.
Julie Gottman, a clinical psychologist in Seattle, who has done one of
the best-designed studies on the topic.  Her study was published in
1990 in _Homosexuality and Family Relations_ (Huntington Park Press).

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