Gay Parents Raising Kids: How Will They Fare?
Throughout
many years of working with families, I’ve studied the lives of gay
parents raising sons and daughters. In general, gay parents tend to be
more motivated, more committed, and more thoughtful parents than
heterosexual couples. That’s because they usually have to work very
hard, and plan very far in advance, to become parents, and so rarely do
so by accident.
The children, meanwhile, show few
differences in achievement. They perform as well in school, at sports,
and in extra-curriculars as peers with heterosexual parents. At the same
time, they are more self-aware, more adept at communicating their
feelings, and exhibit more empathy for people different from themselves.
They learn early how to negotiate the outside environment, gauge other
people’s motives, and assess how open they dare to be in specific
situations. They are strong. In my work, I routinely saw how, with
enough support from their families, children of gay parents developed
skills at thinking independently and standing up for what they believed
in. This distinguishes them from many children with straight parents.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201205/gay-parents-raising-kids-how-will-they-fare
