Children have been frequently brought into the debate around legalisation of same-sex marriage. Some individuals have asserted that same-sex couples should not marry or have children, because they believe a child has a fundamental right to both a mother and father. Others suggest that same-sex parenting leads to children who have poor outcomes, or who are abused. It has also been suggested that the social validation of one child’s family, by allowing their same-sex parents to marry, would cause harm to school friends through increased awareness that homosexuality exists, or becoming gender fluid themselves as a result.
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It behoves any good society to look after the welfare of its children and to ensure that potential harms to those children are researched, quantified and avoided. Paediatricians specialise in child welfare, and it is our responsibility to understand the relevant research data. On review of a large body of research, paediatricians and other experts repeatedly come to the same conclusion: children raised by same-sex parents are no different from those raised by heterosexual parents. Of 79 research studies on this topic, 95% support no difference between same sex or heterosexual parents. However, much attention has been drawn to the results of the outlier 5%, which suggest poorer outcomes in same-sex parented families. It is important to look at these outlier studies in detail.
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While in academia anyone should be able to analyse and publish data, it’s unusual that recent papers reporting outlier outcomes have been led by non-expert authors, including an economist, a sociologist with particular interest in religious matters and an academic whose stated expertise is in faith and religion. One can already see the risk of bias in the interpretation of the data, and close analysis does find methodological flaws in the outlier studies.
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We know that children who experience family breakdown or a single parent don’t tend to do as well as those with stable, married parents. The outlier studies looked at children from families with same-sex attracted parents in the presence of parental separation and compared these to children who have heterosexual, married parents. That is, unlike more robust studies, they incorrectly conflated the married/unmarried issue with same-sex parenting. In fact, as we know that stable, married parents are associated with good child welfare outcomes, it would be beneficial for children from same-sex families to have parents who are married. And we have already seen a positive outcome on children in results from countries where same-sex marriage exists.
In a concerning, frequently quoted outlier study, an author looked at a series of questions asked of children. The analysis was seriously skewed by the misclassification of questions. Questions which clearly do not describe child abuse were labelled as being associated with child abuse. This led to the false assertion that there are any difference in indicators of abuse between children with same-sex or heterosexual parents.
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With regard to effects on the gender fluidity of children, there is no truth to the suggestion that same-sex parenting, or the knowledge that homosexuality exists, is associated with childhood gender variance. Children of same-sex parents consistently strongly identify with their biological sex. Although there exists a separate group of gender questioning children, who may share experiences of discrimination, their condition is not related to same-sex parenting.
It is harmful to suggest that legal validation of a same-sex family will cause damage to separate, heterosexually parented children. It is also harmful to tell gay children they are going to be poor parents when they grow up to have a family of their own. And it is frankly harmful to tell children of same-sex parents that they are being abused.
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Penny Wong’s emotional speech: same-sex marriage plebiscite ‘exposing our children to hatred’
The United Nations convention on the rights of the child is based on four general principles: the right to non-discrimination, the right to the best interest of the child, the right to survival and development, and the right to be heard. The data shows that same-sex parents can provide for these rights at least as well as heterosexual parents. As a paediatrician, I have experience working with children from all kinds of family structures. Young people from same-sex parented families have without fail been among the most wanted, loved, and well raised and cared for children I have seen.
It’s perfectly valid to have a mature discussion on differing opinions regarding the legalisation of same-sex marriage. However, it is imperative that the adults in the debate ensure children are not harmed by misleading or false assertions, and it’s not acceptable to suggest there is any harm caused by same-sex parenting. Many Australian children have same-sex parents. We cannot harm these children for no valid reason.
Dr Jacky Hewitt is a paediatric endocrinologist and a researcher in child health
