Though there haven’t been many studies on the impact of being raised by same sex couples, more and more are being done. They’re all coming up with the same conclusion: there is no scientific evidence of any disadvantages. The most recent, conducted by the University of Colorado Denver, has found “no difference” in social or behavioral outcomes for children raised by same sex couples and children raised by heterosexual couples.
Led by Jimi Adams, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Studies at CU Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the study examined thousands of peer-reviewed articles relating to same-sex parenting. They searched for patterns in in citation of those works, looking for a general, scientific consensus of what scientists have discovered about the social and behavioral development of children raised by same sex couples. One prevailing conclusion was found: there is “no difference.”
The Social Science Research published study also looked at more than two decades worth of work to determine if and when the consensus was reached. According to Adams, the consensus started to develop by 1990, and by 2000, he found that researchers had reached an “overwhelming” consensus on the lack of negative impact on children raised by same sex parents.
“As same-sex marriage has been debated in courts across the country, there has been a lingering question about the effects of same-sex parenting on children,” Adams told Science Daily. “I wanted to analyze the research from the past decades to determine if there was a consensus amongst researchers about that effect. I found overwhelming evidence that scientists agree that there is not a negative impact of children of same-sex couples.”
This comes as important information as states debate whether or not to recognize same-sex marriages, and as some same-sex couples are denied rights to adopt (sometimes even their own children). And, while this may not be considered “news” for some, it’s a study worth mentioning while discussing equality for all.
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