Media Promotes Homosexual Parenting Without Evidence
Dear ~Contact.FirstName~,
Last week’s UFI Daily ran a rather uncharacteristic headline: “Study says lesbians make better parents.” The article it referred to, “Lesbian Parents Better at Raising Children” in The Times of London, has made the rounds not only in our daily but throughout the internet and news circuits, advancing the notion that research indicates that homosexual parenting is equivalent to, if not better than heterosexual parenting. This notion is patently false, without any substantial evidence to support it.
Yet despite its scientific inaccuracy, LGBT activists within the media have been repackaging this notion for years, misinterpreting and misrepresenting the evidence in order to support the homosexual agenda. The Times article by Maurice Chittenden is just the most recent example. In order to fully illustrate the agility of LGBT activists in repackaging non-existent evidence to promote their agenda, take a closer look at Chittenden’s article.
Lesbian Parents Better at Raising Children?
Chittenden’s article begins with the bold declaration “Lesbians make better parents,” but quickly goes on to clarify that this announcement does not actually refer to any new research or evidence. Rather it is merely a restatement of the opinion of Dr. Stephen Scott, director of research at the British National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, given at the launch of a new report on the relationship between parenting practices and the development of character in children-a report that does not even address homosexuality or lesbian parenting.
Furthermore, this out-of-context assertion is purportedly based on expert research that indicates children raised by homosexual parents are more aspirational and focused on social justice. Therefore, according to Scott, lesbian parents are superior because their children are more idealistic. As this article spreads across the world, what is not made clear is that it is based in nothing more than the unsupported, out-of-context personal opinion of one man at an event unrelated to homosexual parenting. This is just one example of media selection bias and efforts to advance a specific social agenda.
Current Research on Homosexual Parenting
For the past decade, LGBT activists in the media have been adding a similar spin on the limited research that exists on homosexual parenting – all in an effort to promote their sexual agenda. The most recycled misrepresentation in this effort is the fallacy that children raised by same-sex parents fare as well as children raised by heterosexual parents.
A great deal of sound research indicates that children fare far better when raised by their two biological parents. By definition, homosexual parenting denies children of the fundamental relationships to a biological mother and father that are essential for proper development. These relationships are gender-specific and develop within the confines of heterosexual marriage.
The current misstatement in the London Times overlooks and misrepresents the limited research that is actually available on homosexual parenting. Moreover, much of the available “research” is itself the product of agenda-driven homosexual activists. When the media indicates that outcomes for children of homosexual parents are equal to that of children of heterosexual parents, for example, they often refer to the research of Charlotte Patterson, an advocate of the LGBT agenda, in which she argues, “Not a single study has found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any important way relative to children of heterosexual parents.”
What Patterson and the media fail to disclose is that this comparison was made between lesbian mothers and never-married or divorced heterosexual mothers with children. As you can guess, the differences between the outcome for children in single-mother homes and the outcome for children in married, mother/father families are substantially different.
Additionally, the results of Patterson’s research and similar research utilized to support the LGBT agenda is highly specious due to serious methodological flaws. This research is based on unrepresentative samples, biased research techniques and retrospective data.There are many highly detailed examinations of all the pro-homosexual parenting literature and each reaches the same conclusions-the research is flawed.
Studies do indicate that there are some distinct differences in the outcomes for children between homosexual and heterosexual parents. These differences are primarily related to gender identity and sexuality, indicating that the children of homosexual parents are more comfortable with flexible gender roles and sexual experimentation. As one study of existing data on homosexual parents illustrates, homosexual-parented children are significantly more likely to experiment with homosexual behavior, young girls raised by lesbians are more likely to be sexually promiscuous, and both male and female children are less likely to conform to “sex-typed cultural norms.” LGBT activists attempt to spin such differences as “positive” in order to advance their sexual agenda, but as we know such “differences” are actually detrimental to both individuals and society.
What is known about Parenting?
So if you look beyond the spin, what does the evidence actually indicate? That children fare best when raised by their biological mother and father married for the duration of their childhood. This is an incontrovertible fact supported by hundreds of studies conducted over the last four decades.
UFI’s Guide to Family Issues: The Marriage Advantage provides a helpful overview of the reliable and substantial literature that together proves the physical, mental, emotional and social development of children is best realized under the gender-specific influence of both a mother and a father. No matter how the media may spin the argument or repackage non-existent evidence this is a fundamental truth.
Conclusion
There is no new research, data or evidence indicating that lesbians or homosexuals make better parents. All the evidence still indicates the truth that we at UFI hold to: children fare best in stable families supported by a married biological mother and father. Although LGBT activists are busy influencing both how social science research is conducted and presented to the public, this truth will not change. So the next time you read a headline proclaiming the equality or even the superiority of homosexual parenting, look behind the spin and examine the evidence. The news and the evidence may not be saying the same thing.
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