Tag Archives: American

The Argument Against Same-Sex Parenting Just Got Blown Out Of The Water

In recent years, right winged Christians like Mark Regnerus, Donald Paul Sullins and Douglas Allen, have done their best to argue that same-sex parenting is flawed, wrong and immoral.

But a new study has blown a massive whole in this biased theory, and proved what the medical community has already long known: same-sex couples make great parents.

The primary accusation against past research supporting same-sex parenting is that the samples are skewed.

Because researchers have to advertise and search for same-sex couples willing to participate, the families self-select to join the studies, and thus may be not be representative of all same-sex families.

Mark Regnerus insisted that his studies – which are sceptical of same-sex parenting – are more valid because they use data from broad population-based surveys, and therefore are more representative.

So the Williams Institute, an LGBT think tank at the UCLA School of Law, decided to call Regnerus’ bluff.

Using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, researchers were able to identify same-sex couples who were raising children and compare them to demographically similar different-sex parents. Because few male same-sex parent households were included in the study, they focused on female couples, identifying 95 that they then matched against similar different-sex households.

The study found only one difference between the families: same-sex couples had more stress than their different-sex peers.

However, even with that distinction, there was no difference in the outcomes for their children, including their general health, emotional difficulties, coping behaviour, or learning behaviour.

Most would think a higher stress rate would have gone against the them up, but it didn’t.

Researches concluded that the lesbian mothers might be using additional support systems like parenting groups or counselling services, and likewise, their kids may also develop greater resilience skills having to defend against the stigma of having same-sex parents.

There is an obvious explanation as to why the new study found affirming results while conservatives found negative outcomes in their population-based studies.

The new study controls for committed couples; it compares same-sex families who have raised their children from birth with different-sex families who had done the same.

None of the same-sex parents who had broken up or divorced were analysed in the study.

Regnerus didn’t account for family structure. In his study, he counted any child whose parent had had any kind of same-sex relationship at any point.

As a result, most of the children he counted had experienced a parent’s separation or divorce, but they were still compared against children from stable different-sex families. The resulting negative outcomes for those children, he concluded, proved that same-sex couples make inferior parents. Regnerus’ data only included two children who had been raised from birth by committed same-sex couples, and their outcomes were just fine.

Similar population-based surveys from Donald Paul Sullins and Douglas Allen used the same trick of comparing unstable same-sex families to stable different-sex families. Sullins, for example, used data from the National Health Interview Survey, and admitted, “Almost all opposite-sex parents who are raising joint biological offspring are in intact marriages, but very few, if any, same-sex parents were married during the period under observation.”

Sullins, like Regnerus and Allen, was comparing apples to oranges.

In some ways, the new study isn’t ground-breaking. There has already been scientific consensus in support of same-sex families for decades. With the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision last year and the recent conclusion of the challenge to Mississippi adoption ban, same-sex adoption is now legal in all 50 states.

Nevertheless, some states are still figuring out some legal questions about same-sex parenting.

Several lesbian couples in Indiana, for example, are fighting to make sure that both moms can have their names on their children’s birth certificates, a fight that has played out in other states as well.

With courts continuing to weigh these important protections for same-sex families, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have another study showing that their children turn out just as great as in other families.


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For Now, Same Sex Couples Can Now Legally Adopt In All 50 US States

U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan has ruled that Mississippi’s ban on same-sex couples adopting children is unconstitutional.

This move now means gay adoption legal in all 50 US states.

Judge Jordan issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, citing the Supreme Court’s decision legalise same-sex marriage across the US last June.

The injunction blocks Mississippi from enforcing its 16-year-old anti-gay adoption law.

Jordan wrote in his ruling.

… foreclosed litigation over laws interfering with the right to marry and rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage. It also seems highly unlikely that the same court that held a state cannot ban gay marriage because it would deny benefits — expressly including the right to adopt — would then conclude that married gay couples can be denied that very same benefit.”

The challenge to Mississippi’s law was filed last year by four same-sex couples, who were joined in their fight by the Campaign for Southern Equality and the Family Equality Council.

Roberta Kaplan, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

Two sets of our clients have waited many years to become legal parents to the children they have loved and cared for since birth. We hope that it should finally be clear that discrimination against gay people simply because they are gay violates the Constitution in all 50 states, including Mississippi.”

The Human Rights Campaign’s Mississippi state director Rob Hill also praised the ruling.

This welcome decision affirms that qualified same-sex couples in Mississippi seeking to become adoptive or foster parents are entitled to equal treatment under the law, and commits to the well-being of children in our state who need loving homes,” he said in a statement.

Sadly, the ruling came soon after Mississippi’s Senate passed a “religious freedom“ bill, its most homophobic to date.

Americans Grow Increasingly Supportive Of Gay And Lesbian Adults Adopting Children

According to the new states from the CDC, Americans have grown increasingly supportive of gay and lesbian adults adopting children.

In a survey completed in 2013, nearly 75% of women said they agreed that gay or lesbian adults should have the right to adopt children — up from 55% in 2002.

Men aren’t as accepting. Only 68% say they’re in support, up from 47% 10 years prior.

Even though men lag behind, the results show a major shift over a decade, with acceptance growing from a slight majority of the population to closer to three-quarters of the population.

Approval of same-sex relationships also grew, hitting 60% among women and 49% among men.

Given recent major political shifts, like the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide in June 2015, it’s possible that these figures have grown even further since.

Many states, like Mississippi, still have laws that prohibit or limit same-sex couples from adopting, so shifting views on adoption are every bit as important as advocates continue to press for equality.


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According To New Survey, More Than Half Of America’s Youth Aren’t Straight

A new survey of Americans aged 13-20 – also known as Gen Z – has found that only 48% of them identify as “exclusively heterosexual”, meaning that the majority of young Americans are queer AF.

The study asked people to rate themselves on a scale of zero to six, with zero being “exclusively heterosexual” and six being “exclusively homosexual”

Most didn’t pick zero or six,were found to be more open-minded and permissive than the group just a few years older – millennials (aged 21 to 34).

The report’s author, J Walter Thompson Innovation Group believes means those people were bisexual.

They also found that over 70% of 13 to 20-year-olds believed in having gender neutral bathrooms, while just over half of millennials feel the same way, making it clear that the younger generation is basically more openminded and progressive than millennials are.

And when asked the question, “do you strongly agree that gender did not define a person as much as it used to?”; over a third of Gen Zers said yes.

Although the survey only polled a small number from across the country, Laughlin was confident the results reflected a national trend.

We’re even more confident about this for this particular survey because we see clear patterns across the different questions that show that Gen Z has a more complex and less binary approach to gender than millennials.”

The survey follows a similar one released in January that revealed woman are more likely to say they are bisexual than men.


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New Report Highlights the Unfair Financial Treatment of Lesbian, Bi, and Trans* Women in America

A recent report carried out in America, has revealed that LGBT women are among those most at risk of poverty in the country.

The findings were released by a coalition of organisations, including the National Women’s Law Center.

Fatima Goss-Graves, the centre’s vice president for education and employment, says the report highlights the challenges most women face. However, the concerns are further magnified for LGBT women of colour, immigrant women, women raising children and transgender women.

“Getting adequate wages, having the supports necessary to both work and care for families, having access to health care – those are concerns that LGBT women are facing and in some cases facing more acutely.”

According to the report, almost 30 percent of bisexual women and 23 percent of lesbian women live in poverty compared to 20 percent of heterosexual women.

There are more than 5 million women in the US who identify as LGBT, and Goss-Graves says discriminatory laws, along with inequitable and outdated policies, compromise their economic security.

She adds some LGBT women are unable to access job-protected leave to care for a sick partner, and others struggle to obtain official identity documents that match the gender they live.

“Transgender women in particular have the problem of it being difficult to access appropriate ID when ID is so crucial in our society to access jobs, to access things like health care.”

Goss-Graves says state and federal policies should be improved to allow LGBT families the same protections and benefits available to others, including health insurance, family leave and child care assistance.

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Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for LGBT Women in America

The economic disparities experienced by LGBT women result from the stigma, discrimination, and the legal disadvantages they experience because they are women and because they are LGBT.

The report spotlights how LGBT women face unique challenges in three major areas that dramatically increase their economic insecurity and poverty rates:

JOBS: LGBT women struggle to find and keep good jobs. LGBT women face discrimination when looking for work and while on the job. The result is lower pay and fewer opportunities to advance. Workplaces also may be unwelcoming, hostile, or even physically unsafe. Transgender women face added challenges because they often cannot obtain accurate identity documents necessary for work.

HEALTH: LGBT women face challenges to good health that impact economic security. Healthcare can be more costly for LGBT women because of discriminatory laws, discrimination by providers, insurance exclusions for transgender people, and inadequate reproductive health coverage. The result: LGBT women are at greater risk for health problems that can affect quality of life and threaten their ability to work, and they often must pay higher costs for healthcare.

FAMILY RECOGNITION: Lack of support for LGBT women and their families results in higher costs. In many states, LGBT women still are not able to legally marry their partner or establish legal ties to their children. This means LGBT women may not be able to access affordable health insurance, safety net programs meant to keep families out of poverty, and job-protected leave to care for a sick partner. What’s more, like all women in the United States, LGBT women often are forced by law to make difficult and costly choices that can threaten their family’s economic security. The United States, for example, is the only developed country that does not offer paid parental leave.

Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for LGBT Women in America offers broad policy recommendations to help address these harmful disparities and improve the lives of LGBT women.