Author: Lindsay Palmer
Few things are more important to a society’s future than how its children are raised. As American society’s focus shifts away from the nuclear family and more toward individualism and career development, the value of parenting is emphasized less directly but remains vital. The importance of having parental figures is not debatable – the sex of a parental couple, though, apparently is.
The debate over a same-sex couple’s ability to raise a child has come to prominence in the past few years, especially in the wake of the Prop 8 debate. A significant portion of the American population believes that same-sex couples should not raise children. However, I believe that modern society must readjust its definition of parents to fit the evolution of families. The gender or sexual orientation of any set of two parental figures does not matter, as long as those figures exist wholeheartedly in their child’s life.
Compared to many people, I am lucky. Growing up, I always had my parents there. My dad got me interested in sports, encouraged me to be communicative, work hard and act sincerely. My mom has always nurtured me, supported everything I thought and taught me how to learn from others. While they were not always perfect, I had the type of supportive parental figures that I believe all children should have. The traditionally gender-specific roles that my dad and mom filled in my life were essential to my development into a stable individual, but they definitely could have been reversed. My dad could have been the one to rock me to sleep, and my mom could have been the one to turn me on to sports. That doesn’t matter – any variation on the roles they filled in my life would have been equally successful, as long as I had their love and guidance. My parents’ genders had nothing to do with how they supported me and helped me grow into the person I am now. It would not have mattered if I had two dads or two moms.
Many people disagree with this notion, however, and argue that only a man and a woman can raise children together. Many supporters of such a belief rest on sociological survey findings such as one published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, which states that “children raised by homosexuals were found to have greater parental encouragement for cross-gender behavior [and] greater amounts of cross-dressing and cross-gender play/role behavior.”
Opponents of same-sex parenting also cite such studies in order to claim that children raised by homosexual parents are destined to have social and psychological adjustment problems.
However, supporters of such ideas are missing the big picture. First of all, there is no definite information on the causes of a person’s sexual orientation. There is, however, strong evidence for the idea that genetic disposition can influence one’s sexuality. Biological factors that may determine one’s sexual orientation include genes, brain structure and prenatal hormones.
The notion that people choose their sexual orientation, or learn it from parents, is absolutely false. If these assumptions were correct, any type of sexuality beyond heterosexuality could not exist, as every person is born from a man and a woman. A person’s sexual orientation, then, should not be attributed to one’s parental figures at all.
Furthermore, the gender or sexual orientation of same-sex parental figures will not influence a child’s social or psychological well-being. In 2005, sociologists Stacey and Timothy Biblarz from USC conducted five years of research on children raised by same-sex parents and reported that children raised by same-sex parental couples, “on most all of the measures that we care about, self-esteem, school performance, social adjustment and so on, seem to be doing just fine and, in most cases, are statistically indistinguishable from kids raised by married moms and dads on these measures.”
This finding was confirmed by Ellen Perrin, MD, from the Tufts School of Medicine who stated that “children of same-sex parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual in every way.”
A year later, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that “these data have demonstrated no risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with one or more gay parents.”
Sociologists and medical professionals alike agree that the sexual orientation of parental figures does not negatively affect a child’s development.
Thus, the arguments against same-sex parenting are flimsy and cannot stand up to scientific research that shows no notable difference between traditional families and families with parents of the same sex. Society is moving forward, and while families are changing shape, the value and importance of parental figures have not diminished. While the stereotypical nuclear family may be less prevalent, some form of parental figures should still lead every family. Regardless of gender or sexual orientation, parental figures are absolutely necessary for the healthy development of children.
Lindsay Palmer is an undeclared first-year. She can be reached at palmer@oxy.edu.
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