In the current (January, 2010) issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, in an article called, “How Does the Gender of Parents Matter,” researchers Timothy J. Biblarz of the University of Southern California and Judith Stacey of New York University have reached the following conclusions about parent gender:

1. Claims that children need both a mother and father have been based on studies which fuse gender with other variables related to family structure.
2. Strengths typically associated with families with a married mother and a father appear to the same extent in families with same or different sex co-parents, and single-mother and single-father families.
3. Strengths typically associated with married mother-father families appear to the same extent in families with two mothers and potentially in those with 2 fathers.
4. Average differences favor women over men, but parenting skills are not exclusively related to men or women.
5. The gender of parents has minor significance for children’s psychological adjustment and social success.

1. West says:

   January 29, 2010 at 10:58 am

   I’m glad to read this! It makes me smile, because deep down we ALL knew this was true. Thanks for sharing

   Hugs!
2. Loren A. Olson M.D. says:

   January 29, 2010 at 12:31 pm

   Unfortunately feelings come before reason, and what happens is that people feel that gay parenting is wrong, so they begin to search for reasons to prove it is wrong. As each reason is removed, they continue to search for others until they are exhausted, when they resort to their final argument, “It’s just wrong. It’s only common sense.”

   Thanks for your thoughts.

   Loren Olson