Census 2010: One-Quarter of Gay Couples Raising Children

"An estimated one-quarter of all same-sex households are raising children, according to U.S. Census data, providing one of the first portraits of gay American families.

For the first time ever, the census counts same-sex couples and their children, and as data trickles out state by state, more gay families are being tallied in the South.

Just last week, reports from Hawaii and Alabama -- two very different states geographically and socially -- revealed that 27 and 23 percent of same-sex couples were raising children, respectively, according to an analysis by the Williams Institute, a UCLA School of Law think tank that focuses on lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender issues.

Data released today on five more states showed that 28 percent of families in Wyoming are raising children. In California, the percentage is 21 percent; Delaware, 19 percent; Kansas, 26 percent; and Pennsylvania, 20 percent."

More at link: abcnews.go.com/Health/sex-couples-census...

You know, something strikes me here regarding Dave's comment about the kids often being better off.

Since gay couples cannot have children the usual way (with each other,at least) they usually must go to considerable effort and expense to have children.

So, perhaps, given this effort, they are more apt to uniformly appreciate what they have, and invest the required additional time and effort in their upbringing?   When you have to work hard for something, it's harder to take for granted...

Aug 5, 2011 -- 8:58AM, TemplarS wrote:

You know, something strikes me here regarding Dave's comment about the kids often being better off.

Since gay couples cannot have children the usual way (with each other,at least) they usually must go to considerable effort and expense to have children.

So, perhaps, given this effort, they are more apt to uniformly appreciate what they have, and invest the required additional time and effort in their upbringing?   When you have to work hard for something, it's harder to take for granted...

I do think that is the case. They worked harder to become parents, and the children are not accidents, they were and are wanted, thus loved and well cared for.

And the parents in question probably had their emotions, finances and other things allin order before hand and were completely ready for children.

So same sex couples  do make excellent parents

As has already been aluded to, the idea that gays can make "better" parents than straights is skewed by that fact that just about any and every straight person can become a parent, so the odds are far better that there will be more rotten parents in the mix on the hetroxesual side.

Whereas with gay parents, the odds are far greater you are going to find a representation of people who actually wanted to be parents, and had to work extra hard at it -- in order to qualify for adoption, for example.

So, it's not really so much a question of actual quality, as it is of odds.

I've no doubt gays can and do make good parents. I've seen it with my own eyes.  Just as I've seen plenty of perfectly horrible straight parents.  However, the "all thing are relative and equal" mentality sort of sticks its head in the sand regarding three very hard realities.

The biological parent-child bond.

The importance of an opposite-gender parent.

The differences between men and women.

One, and only one, relationship offers all three of those things to a child/children -- a happily married, man-woman couple raising their own biological children together.

And, I would add to that, as part of an extended family network. The idea of an isolated so-called "nuclear" family is a failed model. Child-rearing is too much for a couple to handle alone. The extended family/clan/tribe helps mitigate that stress and give children a much wider support network.

All other models compensate for the three afore mentioned things in one way or another. But to say that any other arrangement can ever equal it is just plain foolish, and the result of adults putting their perceptions ahead of the real needs of children.

And just to remind those who don't already know, nearly all of my children are adopted/step children. I am the biological parent of one of them, my wife is the biological parent of some of the others, one is the biological child of neither of us, and none are the biological children of both of us.

And yet, I can still recognize the inate superiority of the family model based upon married, biological, opposite-sex parents, and not feel the least bit threatened by it. I don't feel the need to get defensive over or feel slighted by simple, hard, undeniable facts.

As long as our society continues to recognize the value of the biological family -- at the core of an extended family -- being the ideal and absolute best for children, then I have no problem with gay families. Just as I have no problem with adoptive/step/blended familes (as I am in one, after all), or any other alternative imaginable.

But, when people try to deny reality, and say the sky is purple just to make adults feel better for themselves -- at the expense of what really is best for children -- then that's where I get off the bus.