Thursday, June 21, 2012

Outcomes for Adult Children of Homosexual Parents

The largest ever (and only decently sized) random sample study of the adult children of homosexual parents was published in a peer reviewed journal a couple weeks ago. The media has fed us a steady diet of studies of the children of gay households based on non-random samples with subjects recruited from advocacy groups, so it will come as a shocker for many that a truly random study doesn't agree with earlier "snowball" studies. Honestly, given the media conditioning we've received in the last few years, even I was shocked at the magnitude of some discrepancies in the well being of adults with a parent whose had a gay relationship. 


Some highlights...
a) 31% of adult children with lesbian mothers have been forced to have sex against their will vs. 8% from intact biological families.b) 23% of adult children with lesbian mothers have been sexually touched by a parent or adult caregiver vs. 2% from intact biological familiesc) 13% of adult children from intact biological families have had an affair while married or cohabiting vs. 41% with a lesbian motherd) 61% of adults with lesbian mothers identify entirely as heterosexual vs. 90% for adults from intact bio. families.e) only 29% of adults with lesbian mothers are currently employed full time while 28% are currently unemployed vs. 49% of adults with intact bio families having full time employment and only 8% being unemployed.f) While faring worse overall than adult children from intact biological families, adult children of gay men fare much better than adult children of lesbians. I found this incredibly counter-intuitive given the reputations women have over men as parents. 


Here are some some random reasons I've brainstormed on that last one... 
f1) I've read elsewhere lesbians tend to break up more than gay men (e.g., have a higher rate of dissolution of civil ceremonies/"marriages"). Unintuitive at first for me, until it was pointed out that women initiate more divorces.  Period.  Doubling the number of women in a relationship greatly increases the relationship standards and doubles the gender most likely to initiate.f2) the number of people with gay men as parents were much lower than the number of of people with lesbian mothers, since it's more unusual to have a parent who's a gay man and they typically have to work much harder to become a parent than women. That is, self selection for parenting plays a greater role for men.f3) The reputation women have as being more competent parents is extremely over-rated. f4) Lesbian women are more bitter than gay men, and children with bitter parents don't fare as well.  Before anyone gets mad at me for saying this, I've only heard it from people in favor of gay marriage and it honestly doesn't jive too well with most lesbians I've known.  So, get mad at other people, not me.f5) Your idea here________________

Overall, it's a fascinating read for those interested in such things.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610

Of course, none of this will matter, let alone get much media attention, because it doesn't agree with elite views on how society should be structured.  That and society hasn't given a rat's patootie about how divorce affects kids for the last 50+ years, so why should we start worrying now?  Damn the torpedoes.  Full speed ahead into cultural suicide!!!!

As an added bonus, here is a review of the totally inferior studies cited in the APA's brief on gay parenting.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000580