Feb 1st, 2005
Bush perpetuates ignorance about queer families
Clueless President perpetuates ignorance about children of gay parents by declaring: “Studies have shown…”
Are children worse off being raised by gay or lesbian couples than by heterosexual parents?
This worn-out, tedious question returned to the pages of the New York Times after President Bush’s sweeping generalization that “studies have shown” children fare best with a married mom and dad. His comment was in response to a question about the adoption ban for gay parents in Florida.
Children of married straight couples fare better compared to what, exactly? The “studies” to which Bush vaguely refers — and whose nuances are lost on the President — compare children with married heterosexual parents to children with heterosexual parents who have split up and/or children with single parents.
This limited conclusion is spun by anti-gay conservatives to apply to the unrelated issue of same-sex parents. The unfair stretch misleads media consumers to believe that the critical factor in creating an “ideal” parenting situation is the gender of the parents rather than the stability of the family.
On a positive note, the President’s ill-informed comment has provided an opportunity for researchers to educate the public by explaining the studies that actually are specific to children of gay parents.
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/29/politics/29marry.html — now expired.)
The NYT article also references the well-known Stacey/Biblarz analysis of research on children of gay parents. I wrote my reaction to their report when it was released in 2001.
I also write about the research — the motives, and the interpretations, and the implicit homophobia behind it — in my book, Families Like Mine (Chapter One).