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Same-gender couples live in almost every county in the United
States, and nearly 25% are raising children.1 Recent
estimates are that there are between 1 million and 9 million gay
and lesbian parents in the United States, and between 2 million
and 14 million children in the United States have at least one gay
or lesbian parent.2,3 More specific estimates have
been limited because many gays and lesbians have historically not reported
their sexual orientation, in part because of concern regarding potential discrimination
against themselves and their children.4
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Since same-sex partners cannot conceive together, gay and lesbian
families comprised a variety of family structures. Until relatively recently,
most gay- and lesbian-parented families started with a gay man or
lesbian woman becoming a parent in the context of a heterosexual relationship
before recognizing or acknowledging their own homosexuality. However,
growing numbers of individuals are expanding their families to include
children in the context of their lives as gay men or lesbian women,
whether single or as part of a same-gender couple.
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Research on gay and lesbian parenting has focused on assessing
the development and well-being of children raised by gay or lesbian parents.
Concerns include the psychological development and well-being of
children, including whether the children of gay and lesbian parents
are ostracized by their peers and whether children raised in single-gender
parent households demonstrate nonnormative gender and sexual development,
specifically including whether these children have a higher incidence of
gay or lesbian sexual orientation when they reach adolescence or
young adulthood.
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Despite methodologic limitations, there is adequate data demonstrating
no significant differences in children’s development based on
the sexual orientation of their parents. This has led several major
organizations to officially support gay and lesbian parenting. The American
Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Psychosocial Aspects
of Child and Family Health, issued a technical report in 2002 that supports
coparent or second-parent adoption by same-gender parents based
upon “a growing body of scientific literature demonstrating that
children who grow up with one or two gay and/or lesbian
parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual
functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual” and
that “children’s optimal developments seems to
be influenced more by the nature of the relationships and interactions
within the family unit than by the particular structural form it
takes.”8 In its July 2004 “Resolution
on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children,” the American
Psychological Association reported that “there is no scientific
basis for concluding that lesbian mothers or gay fathers are unfit
parents on the basis of their sexual orientation. . Overall,
results of research suggest that the development, adjustment, and
well-being of children with gay and lesbian parents do not differ
markedly from that of children with heterosexual parents.”9
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Parenting Skills
and Family Function
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Surveys of lesbian and gay communities in the United States indicate
that approximately 1 ...