GAYS' OFFSPRING DO FINE, EXPERT SAYS: From the Deseret Morning News

[1) For another view, go here. 2) What is up with the DMN and weird words in headlines? They never say "gay marriage" or "same-sex marriage," always "gay nuptials." And now "offspring"? 3) But the first thing is more important. --Eve]

The research -- all the research -- shows that the children of gay and lesbian parents turn out fine, says sociologist Judith Stacey.

Stacey, the co-author of a controversial mega-analysis of gay parenting research, spoke Friday to the national convention of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), which is meeting this weekend at the Little America Hotel. ...

"There's no disagreement . . . that the quality of the parenting is at least as good" by same-sex parents as heterosexual parents, says Stacey, a professor at New York University. Opponents have to turn not to research but to "ideologues," she says, to shore up their case. "They've never been able to say there's any harm done. It's only lies, more lies and the lying liars who tell them." Yes, some of the research indicates that the children of same-sex parents are different than children raised by heterosexual parents, Stacey reports. "But differences aren't problems."

One of those differences, she says, is that a "larger minority" of children raised by gay and lesbian parents "will not turn out to be heterosexual." This is the finding, she admits, that made her analysis "incendiary," but it's a finding that doesn't need apologizing for, she says.

What it means, she says, is that these children "will have freer opportunities to come to understand their desires and act on them, and that this is a good thing." ...

In a question-and-answer session after the panel discussion, Butterfield was asked whether he and his partner act as two fathers or "mother" and father. What his own mother does when she mothers "is not a function of her being a woman," he answered. "If our child falls down, it's not like we both say 'Get up!' We can 'mother.' "

Butterfield and Redd-Butterfield became parents via an egg donor and a separate surrogate mother. Sociologist Stacey noted that she recently attended a christening of surrogacy twins at a Catholic church in California. The older sister of these twins explained to her playmates that surrogacy is "when your mommy has a baby for two men."

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posted by Eve at 10:52 PM | link

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