Homosexuality Under Discussion

Last week there were two important pieces of news about homosexuality. One was that the French government would authorize same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in 2013. The other was the publication of a study by the researcher Mark Regnerus, PhD, in the scientific journal Social Science Research (vol. 41, no. 4, July 2012, pp. 752–770): “How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610

The work was carried out at the Population Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. It looked at a total of about 3,000 young adults aged 18 to 39 who were raised in eight different types of family structure, and assessed them across 40 social and economic categories. Unlike other studies, this was the first to sample a statistically representative population. The author stresses that the reason earlier studies reported no differences between children raised by heterosexual and homosexual parents is the small samples they used.

The study reveals that children who remained in intact biological families were better educated, enjoyed better physical and mental health, experimented less with drugs, engaged in less criminal activity and reported higher levels of happiness overall.

Regnerus’s study found negative outcomes for the adult children of lesbian mothers in 25 of the 40 categories, including much higher rates of sexual victimization, poorer physical health, more depression, more marijuana use and more unemployment (69% of the children of lesbian mothers had received public assistance, compared with 17% of those whose parents were married).

Regnerus’s study challenges a frequently cited 2005 report by the American Psychological Association (APA), which concluded that no study had found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect compared with children of heterosexual parents. In a statement released by the University of Texas on June 11, Regnerus said that most conclusions about same-sex parenting had been drawn from small convenience samples rather than larger random ones.

The quality of the study by University of Texas professor Mark Regnerus highlights the shortcomings of earlier studies relied upon by those who argue that same-sex couples should be granted the right to marry and adopt children.

Announcing his study, Regnerus said its most significant finding is, without doubt, that children appear most apt to succeed as adults when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother and father, and especially when their parents remain married to the present day.

In response to the criticism the study provoked, and to calls for the University of Texas to dismiss Professor Regnerus, the University replied, in substance, that the research had generated a debate on campus that it believed would benefit its faculty, students and alumni; that dismissing a faculty member because one disagrees with his research would accomplish nothing and would suggest a preference for silencing someone over engaging in the rigorous debate expected of a major university; that the research had been published in a peer-reviewed journal whose reviewers included researchers who disagreed with him on several points but nonetheless upheld its overall value; and that knowledge advances through discussion and respectful debate of differences, which is how students, and all of us, develop the analytical and critical skills needed to address today’s complex and often controversial questions.

This news will certainly give people plenty to talk about.