SOCIAL: Constitutional Amendment defining marriage.

The conservative case against gay parenting is quite simply the studies that supposedly support the theory that no harm comes from having gay parents are full of holes. Most notably is the fact that several prominent individuals and groups sympathetic to gay rights have come out against the studies calling them unscientific.

One of these individuals is Steven Nock from the University of Virginia. An avid supporter of family diversity and gay marriage he came out publicly last year in the Canadian Supreme Court case on gay marriage stating �not a single one of those studies was conducted according to generally accepted standards of scientific research..� You can review his entire affidavit here

Whenever advocates discredit studies that are in their favor it usually means the data really isn�t solid.

Another gay right activist that has came forward claiming the studies to be bogus is Judith Stacey. Stacey�s Support of so called Alternative families has put her at odds with conservatives for years. However, in 2001 in an article published in the American Sociological Review in 2001 she ripped through the 21 better known studies on gay child raising. The article was titled "Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?"

Amazingly Stacey agreed with the conservative stance that the studies were performed by researchers sympathetic to the gay plight.

Some of the items Stacey pointed out in her article:

• When the first studies comparing children brought up in Hetero and Homo-sexual homes was first addressed in the 1970�s obtaining a representative sample was impossible and still is.
  
• The information needed to discover what a homo-sexual family really looks like is only beginning to emerge. The first real information is from the 1990 Census.
  
• The subjects that the researchers have been able to get have not been willing to be counted and measured.
  
• Samples have been extremely small and anything but random
  
• The samples have been primarily adults and children that have been referred or recruited.
  
• The results have been heavily slanted to well educated white families and a far greater sample of lesbian families than gay men.
  
• Most of the gay parenting studies occurred during the 80�s out of hetero families dissolved before or after one parent came out of the closet.
  
• 
  

Information gleaned from the Census is as follows:

• 27% of lesbian couples have given birth
  
• Between 5 & 17% of male gay households have children.
  
• 6 million to 10 million kids belong to gay households according to COLAGE, or Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere
  
  Much, much more can be found here slate.msn.com...

I was just watching a documentary on Christopher Columbus, you know what his motto is on his grave?

"Let me not be confused, forever".

He was not an italian, he was either jewish or a catamaran... He had to hide his idenity, like many people have had to do throughout time...

In fear of PROSECUTION. Jewish people were burned alive during his time...
Because they were JEWISH...

Although we are not as barbaric in this time, we are still persecuting people because they aren't like us, because we don't agree with their identity, because we don't agree with their sexual preference.

I think it's time to evolve people...

In order to state that growing up in a homosexual environment is harmful to children I think you must first assume that all heterosexual housholds have a positive influence. I have seen plenty of children harmed (physically or psychologically) by a heterosexual houshold. I don't see how sexual orientation hampers or heightens parenting skills. I would assume that there are good and bad parents regardless of sexual preference.

I know/have known children from homosexual households. They act like any other kid. If anything, they are a bit more openminded.

Originally posted by TrueLies
Although we are not as barbaric in this time, we are still persecuting people because they aren't like us, because we don't agree with their identity, because we don't agree with their sexual preference.

I think it's time to evolve people...

I agree completely. 100 years from now this issue will be a thing of the past - and we'll have a new reason to hate one another. So, what next? Blue eyes vs. brown eyes?


In 1968 a teacher decided to let her students feel what persecution and baseless discrimination felt like. She divided her third-grade class into "blue-eyed" and "brown-eyed" students and then told one group they were better than the other. The "good" group became mean and nasty students while the "bad" group had a marked drop in test scores - and happiness. Then she flipped tables on them. A Class Divided

[edit on 5-8-2004 by Cercey]

Oh yeah, leasons like that are actually commonpractice at the elementary school in my town. The thing is every teacher I've ever known except one never even mentioned gays. Its sad because kids in school can't support gay rights. Other wise all the other kids call that kid gay, and shun him. Its pretty sad.

Originally posted by BlackJackal

If it does not have a direct harmful impact on other individuals, it is permissible

The Conservative slant on this is that it could be harmful. If gays are allowed to marry then they would in turn have all the rights of other married individuals including adoption. This could in turn be extremely damaging to the children in question both physiologically and sexually. Although definitive proof of this would require studies conservatives are simply unwilling to allow a study that could possibly damage a life.

An argument I hear quite often from conservatives is that allowing a same sex couple to have a child does not allow for the child to learn proper gender roles, family roles, and the heterosexual path. I refute this by saying: If all gays that are coming out were mainly raised by heterosexual parents. . . .Why are they gay?

Conservatives are overlooking the BIG factor, LOVE!!!!! Some studies I've read have shown that same sex relationships tend to be more compassionate and loving than hetero ones.