Hopper
Banned
"The pervasiveness of social prejudice and institutionalized discrimination against lesbians and gay men exerts a powerful policing affect on the basic terms of psychological research and public discourse on the significance of parental sexual orientation," Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz write in a report in the American Sociological Review. It's not that [researchers] are being dishonest," Stacey said in an interview. "But what we say is there are intriguing, provocative differences found in these studies."
Researchers, they say, ought to be honest about their personal convictions and let the political chips fall where they may. Stacey and Biblarz admit in their own review that they believe in a "diverse" and "pluralistic" family structure that does not discriminate against same-sex households. Any differences found in research on children do not necessarily constitute "deficits," they say, and ought to be acknowledged and studied more thoroughly.
Stacey and Biblarz claim that "it is difficult to conceive of a credible theory of sexual development that would not expect the adult children of lesbigay parents to display somewhat higher incidence of homoerotic desire, behavior, and identity than children of heterosexual parents."
In reexamining the data from earlier studies, Stacey and Biblarz in fact found significant differences between gay-parented and hetero-parented children. Among them:
A significantly greater proportion of young adult children raised by lesbian mothers than those raised by heterosexual mothers say they have experienced sexual intimacy with a partner of the same sex. They were not, however, statistically more likely to identify themselves as gay or lesbian.
Young girls raised by lesbians are more likely to be sexually adventurous and active than their counterparts raised by heterosexual parents. However the sons of lesbians exhibit "an opposite pattern" and are likely to be less adventurous and active than boys raised by heterosexual households.
Lesbian mothers reported that their children behave in ways that do not conform to "sex-typed cultural norms." And the sons of lesbians are reportedly less likely to behave in traditionally masculine ways than those raised by heterosexual couples.
I don't have access to this whole article, and I'm not even trying to argue for one side of the other. The points I think are worth considering are (1) the claim that prior studies have been methodologically flawed and "result-driven" by scientists seeking to prove a given outcome, and (2) the claim that it is now generally acknowledged that no (reliable) definitive evidence for either view has emerged. This alone would certainly undermine the judge's claim, even if he is right.
Meese's claim could also be supported by this 80 page report, by George A. Rekers, Ph.D., Professor of Neuropsychiatry & Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina School of Medicine. It says there that "the State of Florida used this kind of scientific research provided by Dr. Rekers in defending the law prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children." This "study" appears to cite close to 300 scholarly articles, eh, Eric? I wonder if you have read them all. I'm assuming that you've never seen this particular research paper, so if you're interested ya can look here:
https://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ResearchReviewHomosexualParenting.pdf
Researchers, they say, ought to be honest about their personal convictions and let the political chips fall where they may. Stacey and Biblarz admit in their own review that they believe in a "diverse" and "pluralistic" family structure that does not discriminate against same-sex households. Any differences found in research on children do not necessarily constitute "deficits," they say, and ought to be acknowledged and studied more thoroughly.
Stacey and Biblarz claim that "it is difficult to conceive of a credible theory of sexual development that would not expect the adult children of lesbigay parents to display somewhat higher incidence of homoerotic desire, behavior, and identity than children of heterosexual parents."
In reexamining the data from earlier studies, Stacey and Biblarz in fact found significant differences between gay-parented and hetero-parented children. Among them:
A significantly greater proportion of young adult children raised by lesbian mothers than those raised by heterosexual mothers say they have experienced sexual intimacy with a partner of the same sex. They were not, however, statistically more likely to identify themselves as gay or lesbian.
Young girls raised by lesbians are more likely to be sexually adventurous and active than their counterparts raised by heterosexual parents. However the sons of lesbians exhibit "an opposite pattern" and are likely to be less adventurous and active than boys raised by heterosexual households.
Lesbian mothers reported that their children behave in ways that do not conform to "sex-typed cultural norms." And the sons of lesbians are reportedly less likely to behave in traditionally masculine ways than those raised by heterosexual couples.
I don't have access to this whole article, and I'm not even trying to argue for one side of the other. The points I think are worth considering are (1) the claim that prior studies have been methodologically flawed and "result-driven" by scientists seeking to prove a given outcome, and (2) the claim that it is now generally acknowledged that no (reliable) definitive evidence for either view has emerged. This alone would certainly undermine the judge's claim, even if he is right.
Meese's claim could also be supported by this 80 page report, by George A. Rekers, Ph.D., Professor of Neuropsychiatry & Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina School of Medicine. It says there that "the State of Florida used this kind of scientific research provided by Dr. Rekers in defending the law prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children." This "study" appears to cite close to 300 scholarly articles, eh, Eric? I wonder if you have read them all. I'm assuming that you've never seen this particular research paper, so if you're interested ya can look here:
https://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ResearchReviewHomosexualParenting.pdf
Last edited: