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i/Research reviewed in this brief includes data from
studies conducted using the scientific method. Such research
typically is subject to critical review by outside experts, usually
during the peer review process preceding publication in a scholarly journal.
i/Richard Green et al., Lesbian Mothers and Their
Children: A Comparison with Solo Parent Heterosexual Mothers and
Their Children, 15 Archives of Sexual Behav. 167, 174
(1986) (reporting that the intelligence quotient of children
is not appreciably influenced by being raised by a lesbian mother
as opposed to a heterosexual mother).
i/See, e.g., Fiona Tasker & Susan Golombok, Growing Up in a
Lesbian Family (1997) (a twenty-year longitudinal study of
parents and children in the UK); David K. Flaks et al.,
Lesbians Choosing Motherhood: A Comparative Study of Lesbian and
Heterosexual Parents and Their Children, 31 Dev. Psychol. 105
(Jan. 1995) (studying parents and children in Pennsylvania); Green
et al., supra (studying parents and children in both rural and
urban areas in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).
i/See, e.g., Frederick W. Bozett, Gay Fathers: A Review of the
Literature, in Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Male
Experiences 442 (L. Garnets & D. Kimmel eds. 1993)
[hereinafter Bozett, Gay Fathers]; Tasker & Golombok,
supra, at 132.
i/Fewer studies have been made of children of gay parents,
but the results of those studies are consistent with those
from studies of children of lesbian parents. See, e.g., Bozett, Gay
Fathers, supra.
i/ See, e.g., Martha Kirkpatrick et al., Lesbian Mothers
and Their Children: A Comparative Study, 51 Am. J. Orthopsychiatry
545, 545-51 (1981); Susan Golombok et al., Children in Lesbian and
Single-Parent Households: Psychosexual and Psychiatric Appraisal, 24 J.
Child Psychol. Psychiat. 551 (1983) [hereinafter Golombok et al.,
Appraisal].
i/ Golombok et al., Appraisal, supra, at 565, 570.
i/Sharon L. Huggins, A Comparative Study of Self-Esteem of
Adolescent Children of Divorced Lesbian Mothers and Divorced
Heterosexual Mothers, in Homosexuality and the Family 123, 132-35
(Frederick W. Bozett ed., 1989).
i/Tasker & Golombok, supra, at 135, 138, 143-44
(data gathered from same sample in 1976 and 1991).
Responses from children raised by lesbian mothers and from
children raised by heterosexual mothers to standardized measures of
anxiety and depression were not only comparable to each other,
but also closely comparable to U.S. norms. Id. at 135.
The young adults from both groups who had experienced mental health
problems were those whose mothers had reported poor mental health
at the time of the 1976 study. Id. at 144, 147.
i/ Julie S. Gottman, Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents, in
Homosexuality and Family Relations 177-96 (Frederick W. Bozett ed., 1990).
This study in fact concluded that adult daughters of lesbians felt
more secure in relationships and in the world in general than adult
daughters raised by heterosexual mothers. Adult daughters raised by
heterosexual mothers exhibited greater apathy and cautiousness than
their peers raised by lesbians, who were freer of disillusionment and
doubt and tended to have fewer complaints and worries than the women
raised by heterosexual mothers. Id. at 189-90.
i/ G.D. Green & F.W. Bozett, Lesbian Mothers and Gay Fathers, in
Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy 197, 213 (J.C.
Gonsiorek & J.D. Weinrich eds., 1991); see also Charlotte J.
Patterson, Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents, 63 Child Dev. 1025
(1992) (comprehensively reviewing research on the subject and drawing same
conclusion).
i/Raymond W. Chan et al., Psychosocial Adjustment among
Children Conceived Via Donor Insemination by Lesbian and Heterosexual Mothers,
69 Child Dev. 443 (April 1998).
i/Id.
i/Charlotte J. Patterson, Children of the Lesbian Baby Boom:
Behavioral Adjustment, Self-Concepts, and Sex-Role Identity, in Lesbian
and Gay Psychology: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications 156, 165-67
(Beverly Greene & Gregory M. Herek eds., 1994)[hereinafter Patterson, Baby
Boom]. Patterson's study included both children being raised by a
single lesbian parent and children being raised by lesbian couples.
i/Id. at 167.
i/Id. at 168, 169-70.
i/Flaks et al., supra, at 16-20, 24.
i/Susan Golombok et al., Children Raised in Fatherless Families
From Infancy, 38 Child Psychol. and Psychiatry 783 (Oct. 1997)
[hereinafter Golombok et al., Infancy] (the only statistically significant difference between the two groups was greater interaction between the lesbian mothers and their children than the heterosexual mothers and theirs).
i/Id. at 784.
i/Jeffrey J. Haugaard et al., Lesbian-Headed Households, 1
Adoption Q. 93, 100-01 (1998) (noting also that these children 'do not
show indications of abnormal development'). See also Gail S. Goodman
et al., Developmental Psychology and Law: Divorce, Child Maltreatment,
Foster Care, and Adoption, in Handbook of Child Psychology 775, 846
(William Damon et al. eds., 1998) ('there is no evidence that children
raised by gay or lesbian parents develop abnormally').
i/Green et al., supra, at 178; Golombok et al.,
Appraisal, supra, at 564; Charlotte J. Patterson, Children of
Lesbian and Gay Parents, in 19 Advances in Clinical Child Psychology
235, 257. (T.H Ollendick & R.J. Prinz eds., 1997)
[hereinafter Patterson, Children (1997)].
i/Green et al., supra, at 178; Golombok et al.,
Appraisal, supra, at 565-67.
i/Golombok et al., Appraisal, supra, at 557, 561.
i/J. Hare & L. Richards, Children Raised by Lesbian Couples:
Does the Context of Birth Affect Father and Partner Involvement?, 42
Fam. Relations 249-255 (1993).
i/Kirkpatrick et al., supra, at 549.
i/Patterson, Children (1997), supra, at 243.
i/See, e.g., Golombok et al., Appraisal, supra,
at 568; Gottman, supra, at 189; Kirkpatrick et al.,
supra, at 551; Richard Green, The Best Interests of the Child With
A Lesbian Mother, 10 Bull. AAPL 7, 14 (1982)
[hereinafter Green, Best Interests]; Green et al.,
supra; see also Richard Green,
Sexual Identity of 37 Children Raised by Homosexual or Transsexual
Parents, 135 Am. J. Psychiatry 692 (1978) [hereinafter Green, Sexual
Identity] (studying sexual identities of children raised by both gay men and lesbians).
i/See, e.g., Kirkpatrick et al., supra, at 551;
Green et al., supra, at 174, 179-80; Green, Sexual Identity,
supra, at 693, 696-697.
i/ See, e.g., Green et al., supra, at 176.
i/ Patterson, Baby Boom, supra, at 168-69; Golombok et al.,
Appraisal, supra, at 568; Gottman, supra, at 189;
Kirkpatrick et al., supra, at 551; Beverly Hoeffer,
Children's Acquisition of Sex-Role Behavior in Lesbian Mother Families,
51 Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 536, 542 (1981); Green,
Best Interests, supra, at 14.
i/ See, e.g., Patterson, Baby Boom, supra, at 168-69;
Golombok et al., Appraisal, supra, at 562; Gottman,
supra, at 181; Hoeffer, supra, at 542.
i/ See Gregory M. Herek, Myths About Sexual Orientation:
A Lawyer's Guide to Social Science Research, 1 Law & Sexuality 133,
157-61 (1991) (summarizing research); Bozett, Gay Fathers, supra, at 442.
i/Tasker & Golombok, supra, at 132.
i/Id. at 112-114 (data from subjects in their mid-twenties).
The sample for the longitudinal study was chosen before the children's
sexual orientation was established. Id. at 6.
i/Goodman et al., supra, at 849, citing Gottman, 177.
i/See, e.g., Green, Best Interests, supra, at 13-14;
Huggins, supra.
i/ Michael J. Bailey et al., Sexual Orientation of Adult
Sons of Gay Fathers, 31 Dev. Psychol. 124, 124-29 (Jan. 1995).
i/See, e.g., Golombok et al., Infancy, supra, at 787, 789.
i/See Patterson, Children (1997), supra, at 240-41
(summarizing research).
i/ See John C. Gonsiorek, The Empirical Basis of the Demise of the
Illness Model of Homosexuality, in Homosexuality: Research Implications
for Public Policy 115-136 (J.C. Gonsiorek & J.D. Weinrich eds., 1991).
i/ A mental disorder is 'a clinically significant behavioral or
psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and
that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom)
or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of
functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death,
pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom'.
American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) at xxi (1994).
i/ Resolution of the American Psychiatric Association (Dec. 15, 1973),
reprinted in 131 Am. J. Psychiatry, 497 (1974).
i/ See American Psychological Association, Minutes of the Annual Meeting of
the Council of Representatives, 30 Am. Psychologist 620, 633 (1975).
i/See Alan P. Bell & Martin S. Weinberg,
Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women 229-31 (1978).
i/Hoeffer, supra, at 537.
i/Kirkpatrick et al., supra, at 546.
i/Judith A. Miller et al., The Child's Home Environment For Lesbian
vs. Heterosexual Mothers: A Neglected Area of Research, 7 J. Homosexuality
49-56 (1981); see also Kirkpatrick et al.,
549 (the lesbian mothers tended to be more concerned with providing male
figures for their children than were the comparison mothers).
i/Flaks et al., supra, at 111, 112.
i/Scientific research also undermines an assumption sometimes expressed about
lesbians and gay men in the context of child-rearing, namely that
they are more likely to be sexual abusers of children than heterosexuals.
See, e.g., Carole Jenny et al., Are Children at Risk for Sexual
Abuse by Homosexuals?, 94 Pediatrics 41 (July 1994) (in study of 269
sexually abused children where an adult offender was identified, 88% of the
offenders had documented heterosexual relationships and less than 1% were
identified as either gay or lesbian); A. Nicholas Groth, Patterns of Sexual
Assault Against Children and Adolescents, in Sexual Assault of Children
and Adolescents 4-5 (Ann Wolber Burgess et al. eds, 1978) ('[T]he belief that
homosexuals are particularly attracted to children is completely unsupported
by our data.'); Herek, 156 (reviewing the research regarding child
molestation and adult sexual orientation and concluding that gay men are
not more likely to molest children than heterosexual men). In fact,
statistics demonstrate that the vast majority of child molesters are men,
and the overwhelming majority of cases involve an adult male abusing a
young female, indicating that lesbians and gay men are not more likely
to be child sexual abusers. See Patterson, Children (1997), supra,
at 246 (summarizing research on sexual abuse).
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