Argument #1: Kids are best off in a family with a mother and a father.

Years of research that compares children raised by heterosexual couples with children raised by same-sex couples has consistently shown that children are equally well-adjusted whether they have two mothers, two fathers, or a mother and a father.

Some anti-gay activists rely on research showing the benefits of two-parent families versus single-parent families to argue that married heterosexual couples provide a better setting for children than gay couples. But these studies compare only families with heterosexual parents (single vs. married) and reach conclusions about the number of parents (as well as the impact of divorce), not the gender of the parents. All of the research that compares children raised by same-sex couples to those raised by male/female couples shows that the children are equally well-adjusted.

Argument #2: Gay people cannot provide stable homes.

Not a single study of families with gay parents has found that the parents’ sexual orientation correlates with instability. All of the major child welfare organizations affirm that gay and lesbian parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive, healthy homes.

Moreover, the research on the relationships of same-sex couples shows that they are just as likely as heterosexual couples to be healthy, loving, and stable.

Argument #3: Gay parents molest their children.

The research has long demonstrated that there is simply no connection between homosexuality and pedophilia and thus, no basis for this terrible myth. Indeed, the research shows that people who are pedophiles often have no sexual interest in adults, male or female.

Argument #4: Children raised by gay parents will grow up to be gay.

The research on adolescent and adult children who were raised by gay parents shows that, like their peers, the vast majority grow up to be heterosexual. One study found that while few of the children of gay parents identified as gay, a larger minority of children in this group reported being open to or actually having had a same-sex sexual experience. It would seem logical that growing up with parents who do not condemn homosexuality- and openly gay parents presumably would be among those parents who don’t- would reduce an individual’s reluctance to acknowledge, accept, or act upon same-sex sexual desires if they experience them.

Argument #5: The studies on gay families are flawed and prove nothing.

Given that there is not a single child development study indicating that gay parents are less capable parents or that their children are disadvantaged in any way, anti-gay activists have resorted to quibbling with the methodology used in the scientific studies on children of gay parents (all of which conclude that the children are equally well-adjusted). They argue that this research should be disregarded because its methodology is inadequate.

There is no basis for this assertion. Esteemed developmental psychologists at respected universities around the world have conducted the body of research on gay parents and their children. The studies have been published in some of the most selective academic journals in the field, and thus were subjected to a rigorous peer review process that ensures that they meet the expert consensus on accepted scientific methods. The methods that the anti-gay activists are attacking are well-accepted social science methods that are routinely used by researchers in the field of psychology. If their criticism were valid, most psychological research would have to be thrown out.