Mona has access to some databases, do you?
If the answer is Sadly, No!, fear not! We do, and will gladly fill you in on Mona’s meager attempts to turn herself into a serious scholar in yesterday’s Are children of gay parents worse off?:
Two researchers answered when they reviewed the available scholarly literature in the American Sociological Review three years ago. What makes their essay intriguing is that both professors Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz are emphatically in favor of gay marriage and child-rearing. Being honest scholars, though, they could not accept the tendentious spin that others in their field have put on the available research. They deny that the studies show “no difference” between children raised in gay and lesbian homes and those raised in heterosexual homes.
How many studies did Stacey and Biblarz review? According to Mona, so many you’d be hard pressed to ignore the evidence:
Biblarz and Stacey (B&S) examined 21 studies of “lesbigay” couples’ children compared with heterosexual parents’ children. While all of the researchers had claimed to find “no difference” in outcomes between the two groups, Biblarz and Stacey disagree. There are statistically significant differences in gender identity, sexual experimentation and promiscuity.
Charen would have you believe that the authors found that 21 studies denied the existence of statistically significant differences that B&S have now (courageously) revealed. Mona writes:
The research further shows that daughters raised by lesbians tend to have a larger number of sexual partners from puberty to adulthood than children in ordinary homes. It also, quite interestingly, shows that boys raised by lesbians have fewer sexual encounters than boys raised by heterosexual parents.
“The” research here means a single study (Tasker and Golombok, 1997) that involved 45 children (25 raised by lesbian parents, 20 by opposite-sex parents.) To conclude from a single study (that looked only at lesbian v. non-lesbian parents and their children) that “liberal” researchers have hidden the truth about the impact of same-sex parents on the (alleged) promiscuity of their children is the kind of bogus argument you could only read on TownHall. The evidence for sexual identity and experimentation that the authors argue contradicts the “no differences” claim comes from two of the 21 studies reviewed.
For those too slow to realize what Mona’s point was however, she drives it home in her conclusion:
Biblarz and Stacey deserve credit for their honesty. But their breezy embrace of gay parenting is highly reminiscent of the cheerful accounts offered in the 1970s for divorce and single parent households. In those days, we were told that whatever made for a happier parent also made for a happier child. We are sadder and wiser now. The children are much sadder. [Emphasis added]
Who will think of the poor children??? Since Mona won’t tell you, here are other findings reported by the study she brought to our attention. According to this “21-study” review:
Yeah, those things are just awful.
Sadly, remind us again what Mona told us about the authors’ conclusions?
They deny that the studies show “no difference” between children raised in gay and lesbian homes and those raised in heterosexual homes.
How did the authors conclude their study?
Drum roll please:
The findings summarized in Table 1 and 2 show that the no differences claim does receive strong empirical support in crucial domains. [Emphasis added]
TownHall: It’s where you go when you need to make shit up and lie.
I’m sorry, but you are wrong. You can also find these types of bogus arguments at the National Review as well.
Even the finding Mona cites is hardly blockbuster stuff. Daughters raised by lesbians tend to have more sexual partners between puberty and adulthood than daughters raised by heteros, while sons raised by lesbians tend to have fewer sexual partners between puberty and adulthood than sons raised by heteros. So? I don’t know what Charen’s point is in citing this, unless she takes it as a given that girls who have more sex partners are unhappier, while boys who have fewer sex partners are unhappier. (I can personally attest to the latter, but I don’t know about the former — will have to ask the wife her views on this.)
It doesn’t take a bunch of meaningless studies to prove or disprove that same-sex parenting relationships, whether “healthy” or not, still rob the child of a necessary balancing of sexual energy, just as divorce does. Just because Mommy #2 wears a toolbelt and has peachfuzz on her lip, doesn’t make her a substitute for healthy, positive, and necessary masculine energy. Ditto a house run by two male partners.
To me, the main point of the article is this:
“Most children being raised by gays and lesbians were originally born into heterosexual families.”
Right. So in most cases, one of the parents in the initial relationship was rejected, driven off or duped, and the other partner came out. And this is all straight people’s fault, of course, because we created the “stigma” by not wanting our kids getting raped up the ass by Boy Scoutmasters. Right. Got it.
>While the heterosexual single mothers in the sample were >significantly more likely to prefer that their boys engage in >masculine activities and their girls in feminine ones, lesbian >mothers had no such interests. [The horror!]
Does this mean lesbian moms only showed interest in lesbian activities?
“Studies find the co-lesbian mothers to be more skilled at parenting and more involved with the children than are step-fathers.”
I’d like the red herring with canard sauce, please. Trying to make “co-lesbian mother” equivalent with “step-father” is a sociological sleight of hand. For the former, the entire change of persona/lifestyle is more akin to a sex change operation. That women who have discovered their true sexual selves should be a bit happier than those who might not have uncovered any such source of inspiration is not a gay/straight thing–it cuts across all humanity.
>These findings imply that lesbian co-parents […] achieve >particularly high quality parenting skills.
And for how many generations have lesbian parents been achieving these supposedly sterling, unimpeachable results? Give it a few generations, let’s see how the kids really do in life, let’s see how they really grow. We’re very early in the 0 Generation of this; how can these studies have any validity whatsoever? Once the honeymoon wears off, and the novelty is over, I guarantee you will find nearly identical levels of gay parents who beat their kids, ridicule them, belittle and emasculate them…many lesbians hate men, I know a lot of them, they simply despise men with all their hearts. And some of them want to be “parents” just because it’s all the rage. Don’t tell me they’ll be “better” parents, esp. to a young boy.
“Some of the evidence suggests that two-women co-parenting may create a synergistic pattern that brings more egalitarian, compatible, shared parenting and time spent with children, greater understanding of children, and closeness and communication between parents and children.”
I’m sorry, I’d like to change my order to a fresh pile of horse crap with cold piss soup.
You can imagine how this would be phrased if it were about two heterosexual men raising kids: “There seems to be intense competition between the men over who gets to spend “more” quality time, creating a suffocating and oppressive environment of “over-care,” said the researchers. Children felt compelled to answer questions against their will, leading to speculation that the two-male household was an aggressive and smothering place for children to grow up…”
Just because homosexuality is abnormal doesn’t mean it should be illegal. But enough of this “gays are better parents than straights” Andrew Sullivan-esque baloney.
Just because homosexuality is abnormal doesn’t mean it should be illegal. But enough of this “gays are better parents than straights” Andrew Sullivan-esque baloney.
You’re barking up the wrong tree OTB. The point here isn’t that we believe the “positive” findings of the study and discount the negative ones — but rather that while Mona pretends she found courageous authors who are willing to say what no one else will, support for her ‘argument’ is, in fact, nearly non-existent even in the study she cites.
And this is all straight people’s fault, of course, because we created the “stigma” by not wanting our kids getting raped up the ass by Boy Scoutmasters. Right. Got it.
OTB – Ol’ ‘Tarded Bastard, I guess? What’s with associating homosexuality with pedophilia? Wouldn’t a Catholic priest be a better example?
I’m not sure why a woman leaving her husband for another woman is so much worse than a husband leaving his wife and kids for Muffy the aerobics instructor, but I guess I’ll have to take your not-at-all-homophobic word that such a husband at least provides a positive male influence on the children’s lives, at least when he stops by to introduce them to his new kids with Muffy.
Around the OSP Blogs
This week’s honorable mentions from OSP members’ blogs are: Joe Flaherty on gay marriage Hope Morrison has some ideas on how to increase voter turnout. Adam Morris, on job discrimination in China. Mark A. R. Kleiman on Kerry/McCain. Fred Washington…
Around the OSP Blogs
This week’s honorable mentions from OSP members’ blogs are: Joe Flaherty on gay marriage. Hope Morrison has some ideas on how to increase voter turnout. Adam Morris, on job discrimination in China. Mark A. R. Kleiman on Kerry/McCain. Fred Washington…
Amanda,
If you hadn’t had that ten-year ‘headache’, honey, he never would’ve even noticed me.