Follow
STATES CHRONICLE – Despite the fact that we’re living in an increasingly open-minded culture, there are still those that view the world through the widely misshaping lenses of prejudice. Be it in the form of racism, homophobia, or any other type of xenophobia, believing that a human being is inferior to you simply because they are different is mentality for another, less developed age.
And still the problems persist. There are those convinced, despite huge amounts of scientific studies that prove the opposite, that black people are mentally inferior, that homosexuality is a choice, and even that heterosexuals are the only worthy parents. So who is choosing inferiority in this case, I wonder?
In an attempt to disprove the conservative propaganda according to which same-sex parents bring up maladjusted children, a study issued by the National Survey of Children’s Health shows that there is no difference between children of same-sex and different-sex parents. Surprising, right?
Anyway, all snide remarks aside, a recent study compared the offspring of more than 95 same-sex female couples and those of 95 conventional households. The results revealed virtually no differences between the two groups of children, even when taking into account factors such as the guardians’ educational status, age, location, or the kid’s age group, sex and ethnicity.
Both groups had the same physical and emotional health status, as well as similar states of well-being, emotional repertoire, learning curves, and even preferred methods of coping with stress. The only thing that was different between the two types of families was the amount of stress to which the parents were exposed.
Whether because of perceived homophobia, actual gay bashing, or just because of an increased perceived pressure to be good parents, the lesbian couples that participated in the study reported overall greater stress levels than their heterosexual counterparts. But this leads to another very interesting point.
Different studies, performed prior to this one, have actually shown homosexual couples to produce offspring that are far better adjusted to the society we’re currently living in. This was presumed to be either because of the increased pressure felt by the parents to raise their children properly, or simply because of a discipline that is based around promoting acceptance and open mindedness.
So to clarify things, while previous studies have shown that the children of same-sex parents are in fact better adjusted to the current society than those raised in conventional families, the current study performed at the behest of the National Survey of Children’s Health concluded that there is no difference between children of same-sex and different-sex parents.
Image source: Wikimedia
