Kids In Longest Study With Same-Sex Parents Just Fine

Longest Running Study Shows That Children From Same-Sex Parents Are Golden.

Conservatives are still trying to justify that baking a cake for someone will send them into eternal damnation, and treating their fellow human like the plague is the only answer.

A study that ran from when they were children, until now adults, shows that having same-sex parents has no effect on them. Nada. None. Not even a drop.

The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which has been studying and following families since they began to plan their families in the 1980s to the children now as adults themselves confirmed that the children are doing just swimmingly.

Comparing the data to heterosexual couples, the researchers found no differences with respect to “adaptive functioning (family,  friends, spouse or partner relationships, and educational or job performance), behavioral or emotional problems, scores on mental health diagnostic scales, or the percentage of participants with a score in the borderline or clinical range.”

To sum it up, the kids raised by same-sex parents turned out the same as everyone else.

There were some limitations to the study, no members outside of same-sex women in the LGBTQ community participated, and it was not a random sample of people. Racial and economical diversities were also not represented.

However, there are plenty of other studies that will support their claims on children being raised by same-sex parents.

A 2016 study that relied on a random sample of same-sex families found that there was no difference in outcomes for the children, even though it did find higher levels of stress in same-sex couples.

The fact that this stress did not translate into less favorable outcomes for the children speaks to the resilience of these families.

Another 2016 study included a mix of two men, two women, and man-woman couples recruited through five adoption agencies and also collected feedback from the children’s teachers to make sure parents weren’t basing the results. Researchers found no differences among any of the families based on orientation.

One of the world’s largest studies of same-sex families, conducted in Australia, found that the children raised by same-sex couples were actually happier and healthier than their peers.

The story first appeared on ThinkProgress.org