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effects of gay parenting on children
effects of gay parenting on children
same-sex parenting
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Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning Parenting
America, being the diverse country that it is, has moved on from the idea of the traditional family; one father one mother and 2 children. We are seeing more and more homosexual couples having, adopting and raising their own children. Although some people do not approve of this idea of a family, whether it is due to religious beliefs or just the way that the individuals were raised as a child, it is definitely a reality. They face many obstacles when it comes to them wanting to be parents. People say it is not right, and that it is unnatural, which I feel they think that they have to be twice as “perfect” as the heterosexual parents are. In this paper I plan to discuss the issues that Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) families go through while trying to start a family of their own. The issues will range from adoption and the issues faced in trying to adopt a child, to custody battles and how sexual orientation could play a role in the “well-being” of a child, to how being brought up by a LGBTQ headed home could affect, if in any way, a child’s development.
Society’s Effects on Gay Parenting
As a LGBTQ headed family the pressures of society can weigh heavy on the way you raise your child. In a recent article written by Lev (2010) it was found that the LGBTQ headed families often felt extreme pressure to be sure to raise a heterosexual child or children as well as a child or children who behave in such ways as a “normal” person of their gender would typically behave. Society puts a strain on being normal. The child is not worried about whether they act gender appropriate nor do they care about sexuality. Society is too focused on something t...
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...z, T. J., & Savci, E. (2010). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00714.x
Goldberg, N. (2010). Gay families and the court: The quest for equal rights. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 2(3), 216-218. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00056.x
Patterson, C. J. (1992). Children of lesbian and gay parents. Society for Research in Child Development, 63(5), 1025-1042. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.ep9301201145
Lev, A. I. (2010). How queer!—the development of gender identity and sexual orientation in lgbt-headed families. Family Process, 49(3), 268-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1545- 5300.2010.01323.x
Tye, M. C. (2005). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered parents special considerations for the custody and adoption evaluator. Family Court Review, 41(1), 92-103. doi: 10.1111/j.174-1617.2003.tb00871.x
This academic journal written by Timothy J. Biblarz and Judith Stacey is to attack the well-known idea of children needing both a mother and father role in their household. Biblarz is an associate professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California, while Stacey is also a professor of sociology at New York University, formerly working alongside Biblarz. Both are very passionate about gender, family, and sexuality studies, mainly emphasizing the effects of same-sex parenting. Stacey wrote the novel, Unhitched, which diminishes the popular belief about different gender parenting from her experiences. Biblarz and Stacey conduct a very detailed research study on both same-sex households, as well as heterosexual households to see what the similarities and differences are. Throughout this journal, the two conclude that children do not need a mother and father figure to function properly, as they are just as well off, if not better, with lesbian or gay parents.
Bos, H. M., Van Balen, F., & Van den Boom, D. C. (2007). Child adjustment and parenting in planned lesbian-parent families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 38-48. doi:
In today’s society, family structure has changed dramatically from the traditional nuclear family to the unconventional, such as single parenting or same sex families. Over the years, many individuals questioned whether or not a parent’s sexual orientation affected their child’s sexual preference. There is significant research that has shown that children with lesbian parents do not differ from children with heterosexual parents. Many individuals stated that it is the value of the parent’s relationship with the child and not the parent’s sexual orientation that affects the child’s development. Contrary to the popular belief, children raised by lesbian parents are not more likely to become gay than children who are raised by heterosexual parents. A parent’s sexual orientation has said to have little importance to children other than the family togetherness. In other words, the relationship of the parent and child is far greater important than the sexual orientation of one’s parents. To be a good parent to a child has nothing to do with one’s sexual preference, but how well one takes care of that child emotionally, physically, financially, and mentally. Before the 20th, century children were often seen as miniature versions of adults so there was little consideration to children development in cognitive and physical development. The interest of child development did not peak until the early 20th century. Conscientious parenting happens not only within traditional nuclear families, but also within homosexual families. Both traditional nuclear and homosexual families can have positive and negative effects on children’s cognitive, psychological or behavioral development due to their rearing.
LaSala, Michael C. "Lesbians, Gay Men, and Their Parents: Family Therapy for the Coming-Out Crisis." Family Process 39.1 (2000): 67-81. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 May 2014.
Perrin, Ellen C., and Benjamin S. Siegel. "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian." Pediatrics 131.4 (2013): 1374-383. PDF file.
Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider themselves a family. The roots of these modern families may stem from ethnic origins, sexual orientations, or even seen as a rebellion of sorts from traditional ways. Children may live in homes of single parents, which is an exceedingly more common phenomenon as the divorce rate well publicized at around fifty percent. They may also live with homosexual parents either as a biological child of one partner or adopted by both. Also, the traditional married couple may choose to adopt locally or internationally, potentially blending ethnic backgrounds into one household. Whatever the background of the new nuclear family the challenges and experiences follow similar patterns.
In the movie “The Kids Are All Right”, the homosexual family system of Nic and Jules Allgood is being challenged by the transitions of their children- Joni and Laser, and the sudden life involvement of the children’s biological father- Paul Hatfield. In class, we define family as a social unit in which the adult partners and the children share economic, social, and emotional rights and responsibilities as well as a sense of commitment or identification with each other. Although the Allgood family is not related biologically, they are a family legally and emotionally. The family is an interdependent system with mutual shaping and causality, and within the family system, there are multiple subsystems: parent-child system, martial system, and sibling system, etc. When there is a transition happening in a family member, the whole family system will also be affected.
While many people have different perspectives to whether gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, we have to keep in mind that it’s not all about what society says and what they think. It’s about the personal life of the child that will be affected. As humans we have grown up knowing that a family consists of a mother and a father, not both of the same sexes. That being said every child should have the privilege to have both a mother and father like everyone else. In “Growing up with Gay Parents” the 3 year old son of Jen Bleakley and Nina Jacobson asked his lesbian mothers if he had a father. It shouldn’t be like that, yes a mother can step in and try to take the fatherly image but never will it be the same, to the little boy who sees other boys out and about with their fathers. In t...
Not so long ago in United States family was defined as; a couple, a man and a woman with children. Times have changed. Today, people are moving away from this definition and now going for a modern description of what family refers to. From divorced parents, single par-ents, no children families, and gay parents they are all now included to this new definition. Ac-cording to the national census bureau “A family consists of two or more people (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption residing in the same housing unit” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Like everything in life family is changing. The percentage of non-traditional family is growing more and more. As mention before homosexual families are big parts of this evolution. But many wonder; what is parenthood? How are homosexual families different from traditional families? And how different countries look at homosexual families?
When two people are in love and plan on having a family, they look to the future and look at all the wonderful events to come. Yet, they do not think of any negative outcome that may lie in the future. No one likes to think that something different or unexpected can happen to his or her family, but rather image and focus on the great future that is yet to come. However, It seems that people are encountering more conflict with their gender identity and not only the individual but the families as well. This paper will point out how having a child who is gender confused suffers as much as the parents. It is hypothesized that parents who have a transgender child have a hard time accepting the child for who they are because of the negativity that
In recent years, same-sex relationships have become more encompassing in US society. State legislation is changing such as accepting gay marriages, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and legal gay adoptions; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is becoming public. Gay-headed families, like heterosexuals, are diverse and varying in different forms. Whether a created family is from previous heterosexual relationships, artificial insemination, or adoption, it deserves the same legal rights heterosexual families enjoy. Full adoption rights needs to be legalized in all states to provide a stable family life for children because sexual orientation does not determine parenting skills, children placed with homosexual parents have better well-being than those in foster care, and there are thousands of children waiting for good homes.
Most people who have lived with family have at one point in their lives come across family conflict, especially where their views clash. Family conflicts and miscommunications have often been problems between family members. Taking sexual orientation as an example, many gay adolescents in today’s society feel the negative backlash of e...
Since the 1970s, studies on the effect of same-sex parenting on children have been conducted in the United States. Sociological debates have occurred from the idea of allowing same-sex couples to parent. Some groups feel that allowing this would undermine the traditional ideology of marriage and skew the perception of gender roles for their children. Sociologists continue to produce empirical research that studies samples of the approximately 125,000 same-sex couples raising nearly 220,000 children and comparing their roles as parents and the adult personalities of their children to children raised by heterosexual couples. Current scientific research comparing the outcomes of children raised by gay or lesbian parents with children of heterosexual parents consistently shows that same-sex parents are just as capable of raising “psychologically healthy and well-adjusted” children as heterosexual parents. Research comparing children raised by same-sex couples and heterosexual couples found no differences in the adjustment or mental health of these children as adults.
There indicators of child developmental outcomes were categorized into parent and child relationship quality, children’s cognitive development, children’s gender role behavior, children’s gender identity, children’s sexual preference, and children’s social and emotional development. There analysis showed that children with same-sex parents fared equally to children raised by heterosexual parents when comparing developmental outcomes. Same-sex parents also reported a significantly better relationship with their children than heterosexual parents, which was measured by the parent or child perception of the quality of their relationship. This goes back to the argument that parent sexuality has no impact on the child but rather the relationship between the parent and the child has is the most impactful. In Crowl, Ahn and Baker (2008) meta-analysis study also found that the parent sexual orientation had no effect on gender identity, cognitive development, psychological adjustment, and sexual
Adopting children in that environment would lack both mother and father figure in their life. For example, “Children without a father figure would have higher risks of early sexual activity and teen pregnancy; however, children without a mother figure deprive emotional security and unique advice that mothers provide (Pro Con).” The question is raised, should adopted children be reared and educated into a lifestyle that isn’t natural before they are old enough to understand the discrepancies? Young children that grow up in same-sex marriage environment may experience confusion and embarrassment in public surroundings; likewise, young adults and teenagers who have family members or who are personally members of the LGBT community may experience embarrassment and unusual social pressure. Children in a stable family with both mother and father figure would provide the best environment for them to mature and be responsible. Some same-sex family dynamics are from previous heterosexual marriages; therefore, this could affect the relationship between children and the immediate family members. Being part of the LGBT community could influence immediate and extended family on whether they accept or reject their relationship to the