[garinda]

Anti-Gay Arguments Unfounded
Opponents of gay adoption use several arguments to make their case. First, they say children who are denied the unique contributions of a father and mother experience developmental complications. An anti-gay group, Concerned Women for America, argues, "Homosexual couples compound adopted children's distress by denying them a parent of one of the sexes and then exposing them on a daily basis to a homosexual relationship."[ix] Opponents of gay adoption assert that children of gay and lesbian parents are more vulnerable to teasing and harassment, and that the resulting damage to the child's self-esteem is contrary to the best interests of the child. Studies have been conducted which disprove this theory. Ellen Perrin's 2005 research concluded that children growing up in same-sex households do not necessarily have differences in self-esteem, gender identity, or emotional problems from children growing up in heterosexual parent homes.

Gay adoption opponents also argue that children with gay or lesbian parents will become gay, or develop terrible psychological problems. According to the American Family Association, children of gay parents are exposed to "a lifestyle scientifically proven to increase children's exposure to...mental illness, life-threatening disease...plus the documented risk that the children themselves will be more likely to engage in homosexual behavior as adults."[x] In fact, children with gay parents display the same incidence of homosexuality as the general population of the U.S. According to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, "on measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors, teens with same-sex parents are as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents. A more important predictor of teens' psychological and social adjustment is the quality of the relationships they have with their parents."[xi]

A third common argument against gay adoption is based solely on fear. Some claim that children raised by gay parents are more likely to be sexually abused. This is a misrepresentation of the highest order. According to Concerned Women for America, children of gay parents are more at risk because "the incidence of domestic violence among gay men is nearly double that in the heterosexual population...and slightly more than half of [lesbians] reported they had been abused by a female lover/partner."[xii] These figures are misleading because they surveyed the entire gay and lesbian population, rather than focusing on those couples that were in a monogamous relationship and ready for parenting. In addition, there is no legitimate scientific research connecting homosexuality and pedophilia.[xiii] In a 1994 study involving 269 cases of child sex abuse, only two of the offenders were gay. In cases involving molestation of a boy by a man, seventy-four percent of the men were in a heterosexual relationship with the boy's mother or a female relative. The study concluded that "a child's risk of being molested by his or her relative's heterosexual partner is over one hundred times greater than by someone who might be identifiable as being homosexual."








http://online.logcabin.org/issues/re...-families.html