Raising Children in a Homosexual Household Does it affect them?

According to Jean Piaget, and his stages of cognitive development, kids construct their knowledge of the world through reorganization and they move to higher levels of psychological functioning. Piaget looked at how kids think of themselves and their environment, when moving through each stage. In these stages, children select what they see and they interpret. In the preoperational stage, ranging from ages 2-7, children should have a mastery of language and use words to represent objects. In this stage, children cannot use developmental capacities systematically. They are quite egocentric,

In the last decade there has been a rise in the number of lesbians and gay men forming their own families. Many do this through adoption, foster care, artificial insemination, and other means. Today, researchers have estimated that the number of children living with one gay or lesbian parent is six to fourteen million. Some have described this current period as a lesbian and gay “baby boom”. However, lesbian and gay parents face many social and legal obstacles (Lambda Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 1997).

Is it more traumatizing for a parent to find out his children are homosexual or for a child to find out his parents are homosexual? The answer to this question is never easy, but is increasingly important as homosexuals assert their rights to come out of the closet and to raise families more and more. Karen Peterson's article, "Looking Straight at Gay Parents" assesses varying aspects of the latter situation. Michael LaSala's article, "What to do When Your Child Says "I'm Gay!" explores significant ramifications of the former situation. A comparison between these articles indicates that it is more difficult for children to grow up with homosexual parents than for parents to find out their children are gay.

Children are much more affected by the relationship they have with their parents than by the parent’s sexual orientation. Gay and lesbian parents are just as likely to provide a supportive and healthy environment in order for their children to flourish as heterosexual parents. In fact, same sex parents offer many benefits to their children that the traditional parents do not. Families come in many forms, gay parents only want what is best for their child, just as any family would. It is important to look over the sexual orientation of the individuals raising a child and look at the family as a fundamental

Social stigma against homosexuals is a common experience for those raising children in same-sex families. Although gay rights have improved and a generally more inclusive environment is present there are still many who treat homosexuals as mentally ill deviants (McCabe, 2012). Even with gay right improvements there is still debate surrounding bringing children into these environments. Current discourses assume that same-sex families will negatively affect the development of children and that they are unable to provide supportive and traditional environments.

Elizabeth Ahmann developed a research team to discover if this statement was true. After several tests on children of heterosexual and homosexual parents they found that there is no recognizable difference. “Despite past concerns and occasional reports to the contrary, research over the past several decades has shown no evidence that children of parents who are gay or lesbian have any greater pathology than children of heterosexual parents” (Ahmann, Elizabeth). This proving that the children are just as well-rounded as the

Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory described four periods that are the thinking foundation for different ages. The first period of cognitive development is from birth to two of age called sensorimotor intelligence which is the period when infants use reflexes more than logical thinking: such as, when a baby feels something against their lip without any teaching they start to suck. Period two of preoperational thinking occurs in between the ages of two and seven. This is the time period where they are curious about the world, but logic is not fully established yet; for example, if a teacher show a child of the age of five two beakers that reach same the level obviously showing that they have

Although this study did highlight negative attitudes towards gay male and MTF parents and potential parents, it failed to include lesbians, female to male (FTM) transgender individuals, and bisexual individuals. Every group within LGBTQ+ experience different prejudice and discrimination. Lesbians for example may have less prejudice because, one, they’re women, who are generally thought of as better parents, and two, there is plenty of research proving lesbians make great parents. FTM trans individuals, on the other hand, may face greater adversity because

One of the important questions about same-sex parenting is that whether parental sexual orientation affects child development. Early research on children with lesbian and gay parents began with studies focused on cases in which children had been born in the context of a heterosexual marriage (McCann, 2005). Some researchers compared development among children of divorced lesbian mothers with that among children of divorced heterosexual mothers and found few significant differences (McCann, 2005). For children who were born and raised in a context of homosexual marriage, the Bay Area Families Study conducted by Charlotte J. Patterson (2006) showed that the participants, who were a group of four to nine years old children adopted at the early ages and raised by lesbian mothers, had the same

at a young age made the same mistakes and had similar patterns compared to older children. The younger children used similar reasoning strategies to get to the answers. By this observation, Piaget theorized that older children did not only learn more than the younger ones, but were reasoning differently about problems. Piaget’s study led to the famous theory of cognitive development: The process of increasingly acquiring intelligence, problem solving, and sophisticated thinking from infancy to adulthood. From this, Piaget discovered a key intellectual ability called object permanence. His theory holds that cognitive development goes through four stages of development which include, preoperational, concrete operations, formal and sensorimotor operations.

Gay and lesbian families are more growing than people think. There are many more gay and lesbian partners and they are starting families. Gay men and women can have children by adoption, co-parenting arrangements (between lesbians & male gay couples), donor fertilization, and surrogacy. “Today, more and more gay and lesbian couples are becoming parents, whether through artificial insemination, a surrogate or LGBT adoption. LifeLong Adoptions caters to heterosexual couples, single parents and gay & lesbian families” (lifelong adoption).

One study conducted a meta-analysis of existing research to determine the impacts of same-sex and heterosexual couples throughout 22 studies. The analysis found that there was no difference in parenting styles of homosexual or heterosexual couples, and there was no difference in the emotional adjustment for the children (Allen & Burrell, 1997). Another study based on 30 lesbian mothers with children due to donor insemination (DI), 38 heterosexual parents with children due to DI, and 30 heterosexual couples with naturally conceived kids, found that the lesbian mothers raise children similar to both the heterosexual parents groups. The quality of parent-child relationships and emotional/behavioral development of kids from lesbian’s mothers did not differ from the relationships or emotional/behavioral development of kids from both the heterosexual parents groups (Brewaeys, Ponjaert, Van Hall, & Golombok, 1997). To further add too the previous findings, one study of 27 lesbian, 29 gay, and 50 heterosexual parents and their children found that sexual orientation does not affect parenting (Farr, Forssell, & Patterson, 2010). Child development was assessed based on Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF), and Preschoolers’ activity inventory. These inventories assessed emotional, behavioral, and gender role development. None of the findings among children of lesbian, gay, or heterosexual parents differed (Farr et

Their findings somewhat oppose results from previous studies claiming that sexual orientation did not matter. Stacey and Biblarz found that children of “lesbigay parents” differ in subtle and interesting ways, but these differences were not indicative of a causal relationship but rather an “association with heterosexist social conditions” (159, 176) Although there are minor differences recognized, Stacey and Biblarz feel that they shouldn’t be seen in a negative light or used as a basis for “taking sexual orientation into account in the political distribution of family rights and responsibilities” (179).

Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents by Charlotte J. Patterson is a literature review that seeks to answer the question of “does parental sexual orientation affect child development (Patterson, 241)?” This question roots from legal issues with adoption, child custody and visitation, but the answer to it is also helpful in the society in general as it can help prevent possible deterrence of human development. It should be noted that this paper does not have an explicit hypothesis, but it seeks to answer a question that will either prove or disprove the theory of sexuality of parents having a significant impact on their children’s behavior.

Does growing up with gay parents affect childhood development? There are very few studies that examine the effects of children because social change is mainly examined through parent relationships. However, it is important to consider whether the sexual orientation of parents impacts the daily lives of the children. Sexual orientation is defined as “the pattern of romantic and sexual attraction to others in relation to one’s own gender identity.” Some may believe that this is biological, while others believe it is strictly social or has some social importance. Homosexuality has had a very strong presence in society because it has created a negative stigma ever since it became constructed to be a part of someone’s identity. When gay or lesbian couples decide to have children through whichever measures they pursue, they may not be thinking of the social implications the children may face as they grow older. Although this generation is the most accepting of the LGBTQ community, it still does not exclude the people that look down on them or their children.