Focus on this Family

I always bristle when the right wing nuts or lobbyists/politicians argue against equal rights for gays and lesbians under the mantra of "protecting the children" or "save the family." Oh please. We are families. We have parents and sibs too. And the protection we needed was from the likes of these neocons. (I say this as a child of 37205, and I certainly hope Bill Frist doesn't fall for these fallacies or Christmas is going to be awkward.)

Even worse for me is when the anti-gay lobbyists and politicians use fabricated "research" to bolster an argument that children raised by gays or lesbians are traumatized by the experience. All legitimate research has shown the opposite to be true.

I recently went on an angry rant via e-mail to my family and friends back in Nashville in response to this nutcase representing Tennessee. State Representative Debra Young Maggart (R-Hendersonville) recently stated:

"I am not convinced that just because our foster children desperately need loving homes that we should just place them in homes that are available when research also shows that most homosexual couples have numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues that may not be healthy for children."

I do hope Rep. Maggart actually meets some gay families. She might better learn of their love and grace first-hand. Her contrary "studies" were provided by the masters of misinformation over at Focus on the Family. As a follow up to my rant, and hopefully to bring some happy facts to light, I offer up a link to a new report issued Friday from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

From the Executive Summary-

In an effort to inform the debate, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has conducted an extensive examination of the relevant issues, laws and practices, and available research spanning the last several decades. This effort - which represents one of the broadest, most thorough reviews and analyses to date on gay/lesbian adoption and parenting - is part of a larger, more detailed project that will be completed and released in several months. This paper, meanwhile, is intended as an overview that serves two principal functions: to inform and provide context for the often-fractious debate over gay/lesbian adoption currently taking place in our country; and, most important, to provide information that can be used to shape best practices that focus on providing boys and girls in the child welfare system with safe, committed and enduring families.

Principal Findings

• Against a backdrop of increasing public acceptance, social science research concludes that children reared by gay and lesbian parents fare comparably to those of children raised by heterosexuals on a range of measures of social and psychological adjustment.
  
• Studies are increasing in number and rigor, but the body of research on gay/lesbian parents is relatively small and has methodological limitations. Still, virtually every valid study reaches the same conclusion: The children of gays and lesbians adjust positively and their families function well. The limited research on gay/lesbian adoption points in the same direction.
  
• Though few states have laws or policies explicitly barring homosexuals from adopting, some individual agencies and workers outside those states discriminate against gay and lesbian applicants based on their own biases or on mistaken beliefs that such prohibitions exist.
  
• Laws and policies that preclude adoption by gay or lesbian parents disadvantage the tens of thousands of children mired in the foster care system who need permanent, loving homes.

Will this non-partisan research be disseminated by those focusing on families? I fear not.