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OT: Rebelious reopening of locked topic 24-Aug-2010 At 1:25:08 PM prb

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A quick search ("same sex parents and children and review") of PubMed spat out a small number of papers in peer-review journals including the following. The findings may ease the concerns expressed by Phil Box in the locked thread.

Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol 2005;17:309-12
Reproduction in same sex couples: quality of parenting and child development.
Greenfeld DA. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Same sex couples are steadily becoming more open about their relationships. One consequence of this growing openness is that more couples of the same sex are choosing to have children and infertility treatment centers are increasingly faced with requests for assistance in creating these families. The aim of this review is to address new trends in reproduction in same sex couples, to consider the quality of parenting in lesbian mother and gay father households, and to review the literature on the development of children raised by same sex couples.
RECENT FINDINGS: The current literature on these families is limited by small sample sizes and a predominance of studies of lesbian mothers and their children, with few studies of gay fathers and their children. A recent study of adolescents living with same sex parents recruited from a large national sample supports the notion that adolescents raised by same sex couples are doing well psychologically and are not more likely to be homosexual. The authors concluded that it was the quality of parenting, not parental sexual orientation that accounted for developmental differences.
SUMMARY: The literature supports the notion that children of lesbian mothers and gay fathers are not more likely to become homosexual and are not measurably different from children raised by heterosexual parents in terms of personality development, psychological development, and gender identity. Larger longitudinal studies of same sex parents, particularly gay men, are needed, including those who choose to become parents through the use of assisted reproduction.

J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2005;26:224-40
Lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and their children: a review.
Tasker F. School of Psychology, Birkbeck College University of London.

There is a variety of families headed by a lesbian or gay male parent or same-sex couple. Findings from research suggest that children with lesbian or gay parents are comparable with children with heterosexual parents on key psychosocial developmental outcomes. In many ways, children of lesbian or gay parents have similar experiences of family life compared with children in heterosexual families. Some special considerations apply to the context of lesbian and gay parenting: variation in family forms, children's awareness of lesbian and gay relationships, heterosexism, and homophobia. These issues have important implications for managing clinical work with children of lesbian mothers or gay fathers.