Outline

Children of LGBTQ Parents: Normalization and Assimilation

I ntroduction and I ssue
In these more modern and, some say, more tolerant times, The Gay Agenda has quickly
normalized and sanitized perceptions of Same-Sex relationships in general and same-sex
parenthood in particular. What some would call a glorification of postmodern alternatives to the
pre-WWII era nuclear family, some would call a perversion of traditional family unit structure
and values. The fact that recently gay marriage is more widely accepted and gay rights more
explicitly defended, has perhaps made it easier for children of same sex parents to feel
normalor does it give them a certain sense of still being deprived of stable gendered role
models, or still being Other-ed or stigmatized by children of heterosexuals? Proper child
socialization and identity formation/establishment is often shaped by the parentsare children of
same sex parents disadvantaged in a way by circumvented or inverted gender presentations; are
children of same sex parents confused by lack of standard masculine-feminine identification and
is that confusion in fact liberating as a condemnation of making oneself a stereotype, a
condemnation of labeling or gender policing?
Provisional Thesis: A childs development of his/her own sexuality and self-identification in the
face of disapproving, bullying, or simply unsympathetic peers is not necessarily affected by
parents sexual orientation.
Research Background and Opposing Arguments
Define and outline concepts of family and gender, and question standards among hetero- and
homosexual families of whats considered proper or traditional in the family unit
organization and/or presentation of gender roles, including masculine and feminine presentations
of caretaking and employment responsibilities, as applicable
Opposing arguments presented: How children may feel isolated or ostracized for parents
orientation; experiences warping of gender identification; childs proclivity towards homosexual
desires/presentation attributed to parent imitation
First Point: Family Dynamic
I. Discuss briefly the description of the nuclear family and the origin of the term nuclear
family itself, as well as
a. 20
th
-and 21
st
-century deviation from its traditional structure, including not only
i. same sex marriage and parenting, but also
ii. deviations into single parent households (hetero- or homosexual), blended
families (stepchildren, common law adoption, etc), and even children in
separated, but not officially divorced, family arrangements.
II. Gender Presentation:
a. Mommy and Daddy roles in traditional heterosexual households,
i. acceptance and challenging of the ideal that mommy is cook, cleaner,
and childcare provide while
ii. daddy is worker and disciplinarian.
b. In hetero- and homo-sexual homes, how are these masculine and feminine roles or
stereotypes maintained or disassembled?
c. In same sex families, how, if at all, does the child identify mommy and daddy
or which mommy/daddy is regarded as the worker/provider and which is
regarded as the caretaker/nurturer?
d. Include perhaps transgender parents and whether or not they choose to present
themselves in traditional male-female provider-nurturer dynamics.
III. Sexual Curiosity: children are often influenced initially in sexual development by the
sexual portrayals in their own household (not to say children are witnessing explicit
sexual activity), and even displays of affection between parents, mild expressions of
desire and/or flirtations still shape how children feel they are as adults to approach and
conduct themselves with the opposite sex. In modern times, some may argue children no
longer base their interaction on opposite sex by heterosexual parents interaction: now, it
seems to be a free for all as children now more likely have to discern organically,
spontaneously, how they will interact with a person of same or opposite sex, with no set
example of etiquette. Studies have shown sexual proclivities, kinks, and/or fetishes are
undeniably shaped by childhood memories and parental impressionsdoes this prove
that children of gay parents are more inclined to fetishize or otherwise find desirable,
elements of homosexual eroticism, including but not limited to aspects of homosexual
foreplay including sex toys
Second Point: Rebellion or Imitation
I. Often children of hetero or homosexual parents, for whatever reasons including bullying
and/or peer pressure, do not want to identify with their parents and, as a personal
revolution or liberation, present themselves in ways as different from their parents as
possible.
a. Could this include children of homosexual parents who deliberately and
resentfully present themselves as heterosexual (even to some extremes of denying
their own latent homosexual desires) out of shame for homosexual parents
stigmatism in society at large?
II. Children also obviously mimic their parents, finding the parental example set before
them, regardless of society at large, as the Ideal they should aspire to.
a. Could children of homosexual parents feel, especially in early stages of
development, that homosexual relationships are indeed the norm, the majority
or even the only way relationships are supposed to be, just as undoubtedly
heterosexual parents children have felt it is the only way
Third Point: Re-hashing the old Nature vs. Nurture argument
I. Define and describe the original argument concerning whether or not ones environment
(external stimuli) shapes their character and life choices or innate, self-realized
proclivities (internal motivation).
II. Does one surrounded by gay family normalize and engage in homosexuality themselves
or would they have still desired a same-sex partner in adulthood regardless?
a. Include interview quotations of personal experience type accounts or
b. Citations from autobiographical memoirs of children of LGBT who grew up
i. Homosexual, and tell why they chose to follow the orientation of their
parents or
ii. Heterosexual, and tell why they chose to present hetero in spite of parents
orientation
Conclusion
Children may be faced with peer dissatisfaction or bullying for homosexual parents, however, it
has been demonstrated through evidence presented in the paper, that although same sex relations
are becoming more widely accepted, children of gays and lesbians do not necessarily identify as
homosexual in any larger rates than children of heterosexuals

Children of LGBTQ Parents: Normalization and Assimilation
In these more modern and, some say, more tolerant times, The Gay Agenda has quickly
normalized and sanitized perceptions of Same-Sex relationships in general and same-sex
parenthood in particular. What some would call a glorification of postmodern alternatives to the
pre-WWII era nuclear family, some would call a perversion of traditional family unit structure
and values (Becker, p8). Michael E Lamb, editor of Parenting and Child Development in
Nontraditional Families notes in his introduction that it would indeed benefit society as a
whole to discuss in depth the ways in which various "deviations" from traditional family styles
affect childrearing practices and child development (Lamb, xiii) The fact that recently gay
marriage is more widely accepted and gay rights more explicitly defended, has perhaps made it
easier for children of same sex parents to feel normalor does it give them a certain sense
of still being deprived of stable gendered role models, or still being Other-ed or stigmatized by
children of heterosexuals? Proper child socialization and identity formation/establishment is
often shaped by the parentsare children of same sex parents disadvantaged in a way by
circumvented or inverted gender presentations; are children of same sex parents confused by lack
of standard masculine-feminine identification and is that confusion in fact liberating as a
condemnation of making oneself a stereotype, a condemnation of labeling or gender
policing? Perhaps it can be proven that a childs development of his/her own sexuality and self-
identification in the face of disapproving, bullying, or simply unsympathetic peers is not
necessarily affected by parents sexual orientation.
In these cosmopolitan, gay-friendly times, the Western world seeks in many ways to re-
define and outline concepts of family and gender. In the post-Clinton-Lewinski-Scandal era of
American sexual politics, in the post-Scandal era wherein Americas sordid history of slavery
and miscegenation is remixed and upgraded to place Sally Hemmings as Olivia Pope in a
designer suit and white hat, in the era in which the nation confronted, horrified, its behind-
curtains Catholic Pedophilia glorification, new ideas about relationship dynamics and taboos
arise just as dramatically as the recent spikes in divorce and adoption rates. In this exciting and
unsettling New Age, many discover families are dramatically reconfigured. Through gradual
standardization of homosexual portrayals in the media, many American citizens, liberal and
conservative, question Ideals among hetero- and homosexual families of whats considered
proper or traditional in the family unit organization and/or presentation of gender roles,
including masculine and feminine presentations of caretaking and employment responsibilities,
as applicable (Opposing Viewpoints, p1). In the face of the question of whether gay parents
appropriately raise well-adjusted, properly socialized, healthy, intelligent, and confident children,
there are several opposing arguments presented. Among potential oppositional perspectives are:
how children may feel isolated or ostracized for parents orientation (National Review); how
witnessing homosexual displays of affection and/or sexual activity may be believed to cause
children to experiences warping of gender identification; and whether or not a childs proclivity
towards homosexual desires/presentation can absolutely be attributed to direct imitation or
emulation of a homosexual parent. These questions can perhaps be placed in a clearer context by
exploring how the traditional family structure in America has changed, as well as how drastically
and quickly changed has been the perspectives on Gay Marriage and Gay Parenting in the
American collective.
The 20
th
and 21
st
centuries have been the most rapidly evolving in human history, with
trends in arts, religion, fashion, and even human thought changing ever more fleetingly with each
six months. The dawning of the 21
st
century especially has illuminated severe deviations from
the traditional nuclear family structure, starting with (and blame attributed to) not only the
institution of gay marriage, but even heterosexual families households changed drastically with
the countrys post WWII high morale expansion and suburbanization-modernization, as well as
post-1960s Womens Liberation and the so-called Sexual Revolution. An article appearing in
The American Family illustrates thus:
The economic prosperity following World War II enabled many American families to
pursue what was perceived to be a better life in the wide-open spaces of the outlying,
newly developing suburbs. The ties that bound the nuclear family, the extended family,
and the ethnic neighborhoodall of which existed before the warwere loosened.
(Becker, p1)
The thoroughly researched report went on including explanations for the formation of new
dynamics including: increased occurrences of divorce leading to split and mixed families, the
advent of the acceptable stepchildren as a normal reflection of broken vows, incidences of
struggling retiree grandparents raising grandchildren, adoptions, and interracial marriages. All
this in mind, it would seem evident the American Family Ideal was already becoming more
inclusive, more fluidor, some would say, the Standard was more corruptedwell before the
political debates about laws governing same sex relations began.
With the definitions of family more elusive, and the definitions of love more broad, one
may begin to wonder in extremes whether or not in the near future there will be advocates this
zealous arguing for the acceptance and normalization of Pedophilic marriages. Edward
Alexander, writing for The Weekly Standard surmised:
The triumphant campaign for gay marriage (and gay adoption) had swept all before it,
once Vice President Biden forced President Obama to accelerate his "evolution" from the
traditional (for most of human history) understanding of marriage as a heterosexual
institution to endorsement of same-sex unions. The campaign had been conducted on the
lowest possible intellectual level, i.e., that of "equal rights" for all people who love each
other. But do any two heterosexual people in love have a "right" to marry? Suppose one
of them is already married? Suppose one of them is the child of the other? (Alexander,
p1)

In light of the question of whether same sex offspring are really living a life thats best for them, the full
article from Gay Parenting in Opposing Viewpoints in Context quotes extensively:
Those who oppose the idea of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people having and
raising children argue that the traditional family structure serves as the basis for society,
and without it, society as a whole will deteriorate and suffer. Collette Caprara in a
Heritage Foundation blog entry, entitled Reinventing the Family: Good Intentions Are
Not Enough, on October 24, 2011, writes, Youths growing up with both a mother and
father in the home are also less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as becoming
sexually active or engaging in substance abuse and less likely to exhibit antisocial
behavior. In addition, teens in intact families tend to fare better on a range of emotional
and psychological outcomes and to have higher levels of academic achievement and
educational attainment. With an apparent disregard for the social and economic
consequences to children, the rise of experimental family forms and the commissioning
of babies may be the ultimate expression of the commodification of childrenwhen
offspring are conceived for the gratification of adults who have yet to grow up.
(Opposing Viewpoints, p2)

Harsh as some of Capraras assessments may have presumably been, it is imperative that, politics aside,
more scrutiny be given as to whether such alternate family, marriage, and relationship paradigms are truly
best for children instead of just abstract concepts, untried, used as cannon fodder for vain political rhetoric
and philosophical fascination with the taboo. Frustrated by the lack of truly thorough research on the
effects of gay parenting on children, Mark Regnerus of University of Texas took it upon himself to
conduct a larger, wider, more inclusive and representative study (The Wilson Quarterly) with samples of
adults who had grown up with gay or lesbian parents and had come of age before gay marriage was even
legal. His findings showed that children who had reached of adult age after being raised by gay or lesbian
parents were more likely to need public assistance as an adult, more likely to face unemployment, more
likely to experience depression and, thus, more likely with such symptoms to engage in drug use.
"If same-sex parents are able to raise children with no differences" from children raised
by their married biological parents, Regnerus writes, "it would mean that same-sex
couples are able to do something that heterosexual couples in step parenting, adoptive
and cohabitating contexts have themselves not been able to do--replicate the optimal
child-rearing environment of married, biological-parent homes." (The Wilson Quarterly,
p1)

Contrary to Regnerus findings, however, in a case of what could be skewed data and biased agenda
pushing, a report published in Gay Parenting and Daily Hampshire Gazette on a study conducted by
Abbie Gouldberg concludes there are no higher rates of depression or maladjustment among children of
gay parents. The Clark University Professor Gouldberg asserts cheerfully that children are much better off
because they were taught by their more tolerant gay parents to be more open to same-sex
relationships and are not as gender stereotyped as their heterosexual, more conformist peers (Wilson,
p4). She also makes the connection that because of this open-mindedness and their parents tolerance,
children of same sex parents feel more supported and thus more confident in life, translating to seemingly
more successful children, especially girls (of lesbian parents) are more likely to have higher career
aspirations (4). Whatever the presumed benefits of higher career aspirations, Gouldbergs happy
assumption does not explain the results of Regnerus study implicating gay parenting as a key
commonality among depressed, drug addicted, and unemployed adults of a far more inclusive and
representative sample, including Blacks and Hispanics, than Amy Gouldbergs own sample. Indeed,
whose perception is more open-minded?
It is not only wisely conscientious, it is indeed perceptively healthy to question the long term
potential negative emotional and psychological effectsrather than the applauding of financial upward
mobility in skewed studies of the gay demographic in the corporate workforce (Fetto, Experian Marketing
Services) found in societys sheep-like, fanatical, gay marriage bandwagon. Jay Roache, a student of
Rutgers University, himself a gay father of adopted children, acknowledges the subversive ulterior
motives about the mainstream Gay Agenda and its potential damages, saying I fear the same that the
perversion of genuine love will be met with illusion and we will see way more mess coming
(Roache Interview April 26, 2014)
It is imperative to question the future potential of other taboos (incest, pedophilia, polygamy, etc)
being made legally acceptable by the Law of Man instead of the moral Law of God or Nature. These
concepts in mind, it is worth a thorough read of Edward Alexanders enlightening summation:

[In 1869, Matthew Arnold] Arnold singled out for relentless mockery liberalism's
obsessive campaign to change England's marriage laws so as "to give a man leave to
marry his deceased wife's sister," that is, to eliminate the longstanding English taboo on
in-law marriage. Defenders of the taboo claimed that Leviticus forbade such marriages.
Liberals said Leviticus did no such thing and therefore "man's law, the law of liberty, ...
makes us free to marry our deceased wife's sister." But Arnold's objection to the liberal
position had nothing to do with Leviticus--"the voice of an Oriental and polygamous
nation." Rather, it expressed his sense of the sacredness of marriage and the customs that
regulate it as the delicately woven fabric of civilization, a barrier against the promiscuity
of primitive life, against "anarchy." Such barriers are laborious to create, easy to unravel.
England's 65-year battle over this taboo, viewed from the perspective of our own recent
reversal of the laws (to say nothing of ancient custom) regarding marriage, reverses
Marx's famous saying about history repeating itself, the first time as tragedy, the second
as farce. But there is an eerie resemblance to the present that is worth noting. Arnold
mocked Victorian liberalism's obsession with the "right" to marry one's deceased wife's
sister as the perfect example of its Philistine "double craving" because it combined "the
craving for forbidden fruit and the craving for legality." (Joe Biden, whatever his
shortcomings, grasped this combination instinctively; and it is thanks in large part to him
that a future book of presidential history may well be entitled Legalizing Forbidden Fruit:
The Age of Obama.) (Alexander, p2)

Speaking of Forbidden Fruit it is perhaps apropos to recall the age-old anti-gay slogan:
Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and, from there, to consider the issue of gender
presentation in same sex households and the effects of such on a childs own social-sexual
development.
In traditional heterosexual households, it is often accepted that Mommy, the feminine
principle, presents as soft, often accommodating, sensitive, affectionate, and fulfilling role of
cook, cleaner, and [patient] child provider; alternatively, Daddy, the masculine principle,
presents often as stern disciplinarian yet wise advisor, brash and direct in speech, and hard
working. In hetero- and homo-sexual homes, how are these masculine and feminine roles or
stereotypes maintained or disassembled? In same sex families, how, if at all, does the child
identify mommy and daddy or which mommy/daddy is regarded as the worker/provider and
which is regarded as the caretaker/nurturer? [S]exuality is an important aspect of gay
relationships, Virginia Casper writes in Gay Parents/Straight Schools, But for many straight
Americans, it is the defining one. Asked to imagine a gay-headed family on a Saturday morning,
many Americans would not be likely to conjure up images of laundry and chores (Casper, 22).
Abbie Gouldberg seems to like the idea of the gay household model creating more open-minded
individuals (Wilson, p.4) who perhaps can be said to be beyond gender (such as the
incredulous pretention that todays Americans live in a post-racist society) because gay
parentsencourage a girl to play with both dolls and trucks or introducing gender neutral toys
and games (Caldera, et al.), and, like Angelina Jolies gender-bending Shiloh, these ungendered
children are supposedly moreIndependent (Wilson, p.4).
Another issue of note inevitably to surface in any growing family household is the issue
of Sexual Curiosity. Children are often influenced initially in sexual development by the sexual
portrayals in their own household (Bering)which is of course not to say children are
witnessing explicit sexual activityand even displays of affection between parents; mild
expressions of desire and/or flirtations still shape how children feel they are as adults to approach
and conduct themselves with the opposite sex. In modern times, some may argue children no
longer base their interaction on opposite sex by heterosexual parents interaction: now, it seems
to be a free for all as children now more likely have to discern organically, spontaneously, how
they will interact with a person of same or opposite sex, with no set example of etiquette. Studies
(Pick) have shown sexual proclivities, kinks, and/or fetishes are undeniably shaped by childhood
memories and parental impressions (Darling)does this prove that children of gay parents are
more inclined to fetishize or otherwise find desirable, elements of homosexual eroticism,
including but not limited to aspects of homosexual foreplay including sex toys? One must
wonder if this is an unintended and imperceptible side effect (that perhaps Ms. Gouldberg did not
anticipate in her cars and dolls encouragement) of this Aeons debauched permission of a
right granted without consideration of its potential damage. Again, if in another 50 years
Presidents are granting rights to pedophiles to legally seduce and/or marry children, without
seriously contemplating the gruesome possibilities and mental instability from which could be
wrought, it is worth considering if that too would be considered a positive progression of
Americas heroic tolerance, ironic in its polarity to the arguably (to todays standards) close-
minded and oppressive Puritan values this nation was first purportedly founded upon.
Often children of hetero or homosexual parents, for whatever reasons including bullying
and/or peer pressure, do not want to identify with their parents and, as a personal revolution or
liberation, present themselves in ways as different from their parents as possible. Could this
include children of homosexual parents who deliberately and resentfully present themselves as
heterosexual (even to some extremes of denying their own latent homosexual desires) out of
shame for homosexual parents stigmatism in society at large? Children also obviously mimic
their parents, finding the parental example set before them, regardless of society at large, as the
Ideal they should aspire to. Could children of homosexual parents feel, especially in early stages
of development, that homosexual relationships are indeed the norm, the majority or even the
only way relationships are supposed to be, just as undoubtedly heterosexual parents children
have felt it is the only way? Again, Ms. Gouldberg feels the opposite:
Q: Does any of the research show the oppositethat some kids of same-sex parents want
to be anything but gay, not because they don't love their parents, but because they've
been dealing with "difference" all their lives?
A: That is exactly what I found. These kids are tired of defending their families and
they're very aware that their parents feel this pressure to produce straight kids. They're so
aware, growing up in the lens of media scrutiny, they feel they need to say, if I feel like
screaming at my mom, it has nothing to do with the fact that
she's gay! (Wilson, p 4)
Conclusively, children may be faced with peer dissatisfaction or bullying for homosexual
parents, however, it has been demonstrated through evidence presented in the paper, that
although same sex relations are becoming more widely accepted, children of gays and lesbians
do not necessarily identify as homosexual in any larger rates than children of heterosexuals.
Furthermore, it seems time can only tell as in the next generation or two will the long term
psychological effects be fully realized, the consequences of the open perceptions of this
modern, post-racist, post-gender, post-homophobia society. Like Pandoras Box
1
, like the

1
The Greek myth of Pandoras Box explained at length here
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/grecoromanmyth1/a/050410Pandora_and_her_box_or_pithos.htm
broadway to Hell
2
, maybe there is such a thing as too open. Perhaps it is truly best to
conclude with a return to the words of Jay Roache, who candidly and emotionally reveals his
own misgivings as a gay man and conflicts within himself concerning the image and gender
presentation(s) he wants his child[ren] to be influenced by:
Now in my personal relationship I would feel completely awkward expressing affection
in from of my child, male or female. And I desire a male child. My issue is male bonding
and that brotherly connection I feel that my dyssexualism
3
has interrupted At any
rate...I would never take away a mother from my child and yes there are such things as
adoptive mothers etc but I was born with my birth mother. I would enjoy what I've
experienced to be delivered to my son. That mother and father dynamic I just know that I
would be more of a present father figure for my sonI would provide my child with his
birth mother and birth father. Although my love for Brandon is ridiculous and never to
cease, I believe that things could work in our favor, and I would have a present mother
figure at all times for this child. So yes I'm saying that I would PREFER having my son
while Brandon and I are together but having a woman I between us. And I feel that is
selfish. But that's what I would prefer. Perhaps that's me not willing to leave my present
sex style/love for my child and is what's preventing me from receiving that gift.
[Regarding his strict, abusive, heterosexual Christian parents who often demonized him
and discouraged homosexual proclivities, Roache continues] And regardless of their
acceptance or not, I would have probably [lived up to the Christian example] and been
single all of my life or just fell into a heterosexual relationship. It wasn't really me
deviating [by engaging in homosexual affairs] it was me more so no longer denying my
[innate] shadow. Single or heterosexually conforming, I would've lived a secret online
gay life. If I was raised by gay parents hmmm...it depends on how they raised me. If they
never showed me to a heterosexual style I don't know how I would be. If they did present
healthy comparative heterosexual friends or acquaintances as examples/role models then
I still don't know. I think I would be open. More experimentative. I would end up in a
heterosexual marriage because I still feel a Mother and Father, male and female role is
important for my child to grow up seeing. But I would probably dibble and dabble [in
homosexual encounters] still.





2
Matthew 7:13
3
A concept referring to dysfunctional sexuality or a luminal, undefinable and fluid sexuality or asexuality. Indication to its
meaning here http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/28522-introduction-and-question-on-asexuality/
Works Cited
Alexander, Edward. "Liberal Dogmatism; How a far-out idea becomes orthodox." The
Weekly Standard 12 Aug. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Apr.
2014.

Becker, Cynthia S., Ed., "Changing Family Patterns." The American Family: Reflecting a Changing Nation. 2005
ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.

Caldera, Yvonne M.; Huston, Aletha C.; OBrien, Marion; Social Interactions and Play Patterns of Parents and
Toddlers with Feminine, Masculine, and Neutral Toys. Child Development, Vol. 60, No.1 (Feb 1989), pp 70-76,
Published by Wiley Online on behalf of Society For Research in Child Development Web reprint
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1131072

Casper, Virginia, and Steven B. Schultz. Gay parents/straight schools: Building communication and trust. Teachers
College Press, 1999.

Darling, Carol A., and Mary W. Hicks. "Parental influence on adolescent sexuality: Implications for parents as
educators." Journal of Youth and Adolescence 11.3 (1982): 231-245.

John Fetto, for Experian Marketing Services reports A look at household income and discretionary
spending of lesbian, gay, and heterosexual Americans http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-
forward/2012/07/20/sim-a-look-at-household-income-and-discretionary-spend-of-lesbian-gay-and-
heterosexual-americans/

"Gay Parenting." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2013.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Goldberg, Abbie E. Lesbian and gay parents and their children: Research on the family life cycle. American
Psychological Association, 2010.
Lamb, Michael E. Parenting and child development in" nontraditional" families. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Publishers, 1999.
"Looking at the research on gay parenting, Mark Regnerus noticed that the samples
of most studies were small and unrepresentative, so he collected a sample that
was random and large." National Review 16 Dec. 2013: 12. Opposing Viewpoints
in Context. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Pick, Susan, and Patricia Andrade Palos. "Impact of the family on the sex lives of adolescents." Adolescence 30.119
(1995): 667-675.
Roache, Jay. Personal Interview/Conversation, consent to cite granted April 26, 2014
"The gay parent report card." The Wilson Quarterly 36.4 (2012). Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Wilson, Suzanne. "Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents Are Not More Likely to Have
Problems." Gay Parenting. Ed. Beth Rosenthal. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013.
Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "A Conversation with Psychologist Abbie
Goldberg: What Studies Show About Gay/Lesbian Parenting." Daily Hampshire
Gazette 22 July 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Works Consulted

Bos, Henny, Loes van Gelderen, and Nanette Gartrell. "Lesbian and Heterosexual Two-Parent Families:
AdolescentParent Relationship Quality and Adolescent Well-Being." Journal of Child and Family Studies (2014):
1-16. Web reprint. < http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-014-9913-8#page-1 >Web Search 4 Apr 2014
Brown, Sarah S. "Popular Opinion on Homosexuality: The Shared Moral Language of Opposing
Views."Sociological Inquiry. 70.4 (2000): 446-61. Web Reprint. < http://www.dallasvoice.com/gay-and-lesbian-
parents-teaching-kids-its-ok-to-be-different-1013572.html > Web Search. 4 Apr. 2014.
Cahill, Sean, Mitra Ellen, and Sarah Tobias. Family Policy: Issues Affecting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender Families. New York: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, 2002. ngltf.org.
Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Family Equality Council and Center for American Progress. United States. National Association of Social Workers.
Strengthening Economic Security for Children Living in LGBTQ Families. Denver, CO: Movement Advancement
Project, 2012. Web. <http://www.lgbtmap.org/file/strengthening-economic-security.pdf>. Web Search 4 Apr 2014
Fitzgerald, Bridget. "Children of lesbian and gay parents: A review of the literature." Marriage & Family
Review 29.1 (1999): 57-75.Web Reprint. <
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v29n01_05#.U0JwyahdXZU > Web Search. 4 Apr. 2014

Gantz, Joe. Whose Child Cries: Children of Gay Parents Talk about their Lives. Rolling Hills Estates, CA: Jalmar
Press, 1983. Print. The American College of Pediatricians. Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time for Change?
acpeds.org. Mar 26 2009. Web. 4 Apr 2014 <http://acpeds.org/>.
Gates, Gary J. LGBT Parenting in the United States The Williams Institute. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA School of
Law, 2013. Web. < http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Parenting.pdf > Web Search. 4
Apr. 2014
Golombok, Susan, and Fiona Tasker. "Do parents influence the sexual orientation of their children? Findings from a
longitudinal study of lesbian families." Developmental psychology 32.1 (1996): 3.
Kosciw, Joseph G., and Elizabeth M. Diaz. Involved, Invisible, Ignored: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Parents and Their Children in Our Nation's K-12 Schools. Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education
Network (GLSEN). 121 West 27th Street Suite 804, New York, NY 10001, 2008. Web.
<http://www.familyequality.org/_asset/5n43xf/familiesandschools.pdf > Web Search. 4 Apr. 2014
Lewin, Ellen . "Embracing Consumption: Making Sense of Gay Fathers Strategies for Becoming Parents." The
Austin Summit on LGBT Families . University of Texas. Austin, Texas. 26 Apr 2013. Reading. Departments of
Gender, Womens & Sexuality Studies, and Anthropology. Iowa: University of Iowa, 2013. Web. <
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/sociology/_files/pdfs/lewin.pdf > Web Search. 4 Apr. 2014
Marks, Loren. "Same-sex parenting and childrens outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological
associations brief on lesbian and gay parenting." Social Science Research 41 (2012): 735-751. Web Reprint. <
http://www.baylorisr.org/wp-content/uploads/Marks.pdf >Web Search. 4 Apr. 2014
Pluhar*, Erika I., and Peter Kuriloff. "What really matters in family communication about sexuality? A qualitative
analysis of affect and style among African American mothers and adolescent daughters." Sex Education4.3 (2004):
303-321.
Pick, Susan, and Patricia Andrade Palos. "Impact of the family on the sex lives of adolescents." Adolescence 30.119
(1995): 667-675.
Walker*, Joy. "Parents and sex educationlooking beyond the birds and the bees." Sex Education 4.3 (2004):
239-254.