The Kids Are Alright

Orson Morrison is a 32-year-old clinical psychologist from Toronto. Jesse Carr is a 23-year-old non-profit staff member from a rural Pennsylvania town. Jessie Voors is a 16-year-old high school sophomore from Fort Wayne, IN. Erinne Kovi is a 29-year-old businesswoman and mother of one from Ohio.

What do these four people have in common? They all have gay or lesbian parents. Each of them recognizes that in many ways they are unique. But a new study, published in the journal Child Development, confirms what they have always known: They're just as well-adjusted as people with heterosexual parents.

A New Generation of Research

Researchers have been studying the children of gay and lesbian parents for almost 50 years, trying to find out if they have more problems than other kids. Do they have more behavior problems, a harder time making friends, or difficulties with sexual identity? The answer, time and again, has been a resounding "No."

Before now, as critics are quick to point out, research in this area has had various limitations - in particular, small sample groups and a lack of educational or socioeconomic diversity. But this most recent study is helping to usher in what lead researcher Charlotte Patterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, calls a "new generation of research."

Patterson and her colleagues used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a survey of more than 12,000 high school students from across the country. "Using a national sample makes us more confident that the findings are stable and applicable to the broad range of adolescents in the U.S.," says co-author Stephen Russell, associate professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona.

The sample size is larger, and the results are still the same. "What this study shows, and what countless other studies have shown, is that sexual orientation is irrelevant in terms of promoting and rearing a healthy child," says Suzanne Johnson, associate professor of psychology at Dowling College and co-author of The Gay Baby Boom. "What matters is who the person is, not who they love."

Relationships Are Key

Teens with same-sex parents were identical to those with opposite-sex parents in almost every area analyzed, from anxiety levels to autonomy, and even grade-point average. It was kids' relationships with their parents, not the gender of their parents' partners, that clearly influenced their development. Those with warm, caring family bonds were doing better at home, in school, and in their social lives than those without them. Other studies have also found parental warmth - being a caring, understanding, and accepting parent - to be one of the most powerful forces behind the healthy development of children and adolescents, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, family structure, and sexual orientation. Gay and lesbian parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to meet - or to fail to meet - their children's needs for healthy development.

This comes as no surprise to those with experience in child development, including Aimee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition (http://www.familypride.org), a lesbian and gay organization, and a mother herself. "There's so much that we know about the ingredients to well-being," she says, emphasizing the importance of loving, stable households. "When you bake a cake, it doesn't matter who dumps in the flour. It's just got to be there."

Finding Strength in Difference

It may not matter who dumps in the flour, but, as children of gays and lesbians often point out, their family structure does affect their lives. "A lot of the emphasis has been on proving to the world that we're normal, we're not different, we're no different than you," says Orson Morrison, who, in his work as a clinical psychologist, has studied other adult sons of gay men. "I think that once it's accepted that we're normal, then we can start talking about how we are different."