http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/papers/a145197/index.html
- About 11% of Australian gay men and 33% of lesbians have children. Children may have been conceived in the context of previous heterosexual relationships, or raised from birth by a co-parenting gay or lesbian couple or single parent.
- Overall, research to date considerably challenges the point of view that same-sex parented families are harmful to children. Children in such families do as well emotionally, socially and educationally as their peers from heterosexual couple families.
- Some researchers have concluded there are benefits for children raised by lesbian couples in that they experience higher quality parenting, sons display greater gender flexibility, and sons and daughters display more open-mindedness towards sexual, gender and family diversity.
- The possible effect of important socio-economic family factors, such as income and parental education, were not always considered in the studies reviewed in this paper.
- Although many Australian lesbian-parented families appear to be receiving good support from their health care providers, there is evidence that more could be done to develop policies and practices supportive of same-sex parented families in the Australian health, education, child protection and foster care systems.
- Additional key messages, relating to specific family structures and psychosocial outcomes for children raised by lesbian and gay parents, are included throughout the paper.
Follow the link to read through more details on the study. This is just one of many studies showing gay parents don't have any more of a negative impact on raising children than with straight parents.
Common sense suggests the key to being good parents...is being good parents.