[Gay] Lesbians parents better at raising children

[ulmont]

Lesbians make better parents than conventional couples, according to a director of the government's parenting academy.

Stephen Scott, director of research at the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, told a meeting last week that the latest research showed that children of such couples did better in life.

Speaking at the launch at the think tank Demos of a report on the influence of character on life, Scott said: "Lesbians make better parents than a man and a woman."

His arguments are supported by experts who have found, over years of research, that children brought up by female couples are more aspirational and more confident in championing social justice. They show no more tendencies towards homosexuality than the offspring of heterosexual parents.

Such strong endorsement from the government's main agency for parenting will give a boost to gay parents. The speech from the academy, set up by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2007, will alarm traditional family supporters and those who raise concerns about the lack of a father figure in a child's life.

Parenting groups have recently been accused of turning into vocal advocates for the tiny minority of parents who are gay couples. There was a row this year when the British Association for Adoption and Fostering described opponents of gay adoption as "retarded homophobes". It had to pulp copies of a guide using the phrase.

However, more than a third of people now believe a lesbian couple can be at least as good parents as a man and a woman, according to the annual British Social Attitudes report.

Research at Birkbeck college, part of London University, and at Clark University in Massachusetts, says there is no evidence to show children of lesbian parents are disadvantaged in any way.

By the nature of their relationship, lesbian couples cannot have children by accident. They use a sperm donor, often a gay man, or adopt. The child then has two "mothers".

Daughters of lesbians are more likely to aspire to professions that were traditionally considered male, such as doctors or lawyers.

Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney, the former American vice-president, who is expecting her second baby later this month, said in a recent interview: "Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years has shown there is no difference between children raised by same-sex parents and children raised by opposite-sex parents. What matters is being raised in a stable, loving environment."

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article6917212.ece

I question that being "more aspirational and more confident in championing social justice" is an automatic "better" child, but YMMV.

[Ed Anger]

uh-huh. Goofy ass Brits.

[Caliga]

I knew two lesbian couples up in Boston who had kids, and their kids seemed perfectly happy.

[Maximus]

I question that being "more aspirational and more confident in championing social justice" is an automatic "better" child, but YMMV.

Yea that's a pretty one-dimensional rating.

[HVC]

His arguments are supported by experts who have found, over years of research, that children brought up by female couples are more aspirational and more confident in championing social justice.

So they become annoying and shrill like their mothers?

[Valmy]

His arguments are supported by experts who have found, over years of research, that children brought up by female couples are more aspirational and more confident in championing social justice.

WTH?  I thought I was going to see something here about how they have higher incomes or stay in school or something.  'Confident in championing social justice?'  What kind of bizarre metric is that?

[Valmy]

I knew two lesbian couples up in Boston who had kids, and their kids seemed perfectly happy.

Are those kids championing social justice?

[Caliga]

  Yeah.  Gee, how shocking that children raised by gay parents would tend to be more outspoken about gay rights.

[Neil]

It's all that matters to some people.

In fact, they're worse off, because they have been raised to believe that homosexuality is normal and acceptable.

[Caliga]

Are those kids championing social justice?

The last I had contact with them they were championing being nursed and having their diapers changed.

[Berkut]

I actually would not find it at all surprising if gay couples were lsightly better parents than the general population.

The general population includes a lot of intolerant assholes. Gay couples, if nothing else, are likely going to be more aware, more tolerant, and more engaged parents, if for no other reasno than it takes a lot more work to have a child when you are gay.

I also would not find it surprising that adoptive parents as a whole are better parents than the average, for much the same reasons. It would be more interesting to compare adoptive gay parents to adoptive straight parents.

[Caliga]

I actually would not find it at all surprising if gay couples were lsightly better parents than the general population.

The general population includes a lot of intolerant assholes. Gay couples, if nothing else, are likely going to be more aware, more tolerant, and more engaged parents, if for no other reasno than it takes a lot more work to have a child when you are gay.

I also would not find it surprising that adoptive parents as a whole are better parents than the average, for much the same reasons. It would be more interesting to compare adoptive gay parents to adoptive straight parents.

[DisturbedPervert]

Are those kids championing social justice?

The last I had contact with them they were championing being nursed and having their diapers changed.

Hopefully they were championing this while in public places

[Caliga]

Hopefully they were championing this while in public places

uh.... no.  Have you ever seen a real lesbian (as opposed to a Howard Stern lesbian)?

[Valmy]

I actually would not find it at all surprising if gay couples were lsightly better parents than the general population.

The general population includes a lot of intolerant assholes. Gay couples, if nothing else, are likely going to be more aware, more tolerant, and more engaged parents, if for no other reasno than it takes a lot more work to have a child when you are gay.

I also would not find it surprising that adoptive parents as a whole are better parents than the average, for much the same reasons. It would be more interesting to compare adoptive gay parents to adoptive straight parents.

Yep.  I also perceive that gay couples tend to come from, on average, more educated backgrounds than the average joe.