Foreign Studies

Everyone needs loving and supporting parents, no matter what sexuality their parents
have. For many long time, same-sex couples raising families have faced discrimination or unfair
treatment from those who say that growing up with same-sex parents might be bad for their
child/children. According to the researchers behind The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family
Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study of same-sex couples raising kids, concluded that those
who grew up with two moms have no difference to those who were raised by heterosexual
parents.

Another study said from Prof. Roberto Baiocco (2018) published in the Journal of
Development & Behavioral Pediatrics suggested that children with same-sex parents are doing
well, in both terms of psychological adjustment and prosocial behavior. There is nothing wrong
with same-sex parents raising children because it is about how parents raise their children and
how confident they feel as a parent. Parents who have children with problems is the result of
incompetent parenting. Family is family and no any sexual orientation matters because it is about
on how they raise them.

This study found out that kids grew up with homosexual parents show the same mental
health with those who grew up with heterosexual parents, or even better. As stated by Gartrell
(2018) that back then, many people assumed that kids with same-sex parents couldn’t grow well
and that they would grow up with health problems, but one of their findings found out that kids
with same-sex parents had fewer behavioral problems and they are also doing better in school.
Dr. Jack Drescher said that what is the most important for the kids to grow up well is to have
parents that will love, support and guide them, and not the sexuality of them.

This study has been following the same group of moms and offspring since the 1980s.
Through the years of study, it is found out that these kids are just doing fine like any other
children. They are growing up healthy and good with the love their parents. Drescher, who is not
involved in the study, said that same-sex couples in U.S are facing hardships to foster or adopt a
child. Those restrictions are not based on science but based on religious or moral beliefs. It is not
equal to restrict them just because of their sexual orientation.
 Children of lesbians aren’t just well-adjusted but also excel, from a series of studies in
Canada over the past decades. Kids with two moms seem to be less aggressive and are more
confident, affectionate and open-minded than those with the normal girl and boy parents. One of
the tips on lesbians to have a happy, healthy child is to have an equal and loving partner. Two-
parent families tend to raise happier children, regardless of parents’ orientation. Because having
two parents could bring more financial resources into the house that could help them raise their
children well.

Parents should not hit them when they do something wrong, instead tell it discreetly. As
stated by Hastings (2004), homosexual parents tend to hit their child less than heterosexual
parents. Parents who often use physical discipline are the ones from the heterosexual families,
which is the father. Parents should also tell their child where they came from because that could
help the kids to build their confidence and appreciate their parents even more. Hastings (2004)
found out that lesbians are more open and less secretive with their children than straight parents.
He stated that children who did not knew about their identity tend to be negative.

Psychological and social problems in their current lives of young adults are the results of
growing up from broken homes in which a parent had a same-sex relationship. In this study,
participants who grew up intact with their parents tend to have the lowest average level of
problems in their current life, like drug use, unemployment or about their mental health. While,
participants who grew up with a single, heterosexual parent, in a family with a late divorce
reported to have higher levels of such problems as adults. Gary Gates, a demographer at the
University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, said that those kids
who grew up from a divorced parent will not do any good to them.

Sources:

1. https://www.mother.ly/news/lesbian-parents-impact-kids-mental-health
2. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20180718/study-adults-raised-by-lesbians-
are-all-right#1
3. https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/child-development-news-
124/longest-study-yet-finds-adult-kids-of-lesbian-moms-are-doing-fine-735911.html
4. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-
lesbian-families/article1358105/
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/health/study-examines-effect-of-having-a-gay-
parent.html