Why Marriage Matters to Families

Share Tweet
Email Print

"We want to avail of marriage as a couple, and for our sons to have two married mums. Until that day, our sons know they have two mums who love them, and that is what counts."

Denise & Paula, "It's No Joke - Civil Marriage Rights for Lesbians and Gay Men in Ireland" (Marriage Equality: 2009)

Families, including Irish families, have grown more diverse in recent decades, and researchers around the world have studied how these different family relationships affect children. It has become clear that the quality of a family's relationship is more important than the particular structure of families that exist today.

Grainne & familyIn other words, the qualities that help children grow into good and responsible adults -- learning how to learn, to have compassion for others, to contribute to society and be respectful of others and their differences -- do not depend on the sexual orientation of their parents but on their parents' ability to provide a loving, stable and happy home.

That is why research studies have consistently shown that children raised by gay and lesbian parents do just as well as children raised by heterosexual parents in all conventional measures of child development, such as academic achievement, psychological well-being and social abilities.

According to a 2001 report by the Swedish Government: "combined research shows that children with LGBT parents have developed psychologically and socially in a similar way to the children with which they were compared. No differences emerged either as regards the children's sexual development. Nor did any difference emerge from the research between the ability of homosexual and heterosexual parents to offer children good nurturing and care." (Children in Families - Summary, 2001)

More recently, a German research digest in 2009 found that:

  • the sexual orientation of the parent does not affect the behaviour and development of the child;
  • children of same sex parents sometimes suffer from discrimination but have the psychological strength to withstand it;
  • children of same sex parents are more tolerant of homosexuality but no more likely than the national average to become gay themselves.

Learn More:

  • Irish Research :: Voices of Children: Report on initial research with children of LGBT parents (Iris Elliott, Marriage Equality, 2010)
  • European Research :: Children in Families - Summary (The Commission on the Situation of Children in Families, 2001)
  • European Research :: Gleischgeschlechtliche Lebensgemeinschaften mit und ohne Kinder. Eine Expertise auf der Basis des Mikrozensus 2006 (B Eggen, 2009) (translation "Same-sex cohabiting couples with and without children. An expert's report on the basis of the micro-census")
  • North American Research :: (How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter? by Judith Stacey and Tim Biblarz in the American Sociological Review, April 2001.
  • North American Research :: The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-being of Children, (American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics: Vol. 118 No. 1 July 2006, pp. 349-364)
  • North American Research :: Expanding Resources for Children: Is Adoption By Gays and Lesbians Part of the Answer for Boys and Girls Who Need Homes? (Jeanne Howard, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, March 2006)
  • North American Research :: The High Cost of Denying Permanency (Prepared by Carl A. Schuh, J.D., M.A. and Karen M. Doering, J.D., National Center for Lesbian Rights)
  • North American Research :: Technical Report: Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents (Ellen C. Perrin, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2002)
  • North American Research :: Adoption by Lesbians and Gays: A National Survey of Adoption Agency Policies, Practices, and Attitudes (Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 2003)
  • North American Research :: Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Summary of Research Findings (Charlotte J. Patterson, American Psychological Association, 1995)
  • North American Research :: The Cost of Marriage Inequality to Children and Their Same-Sex Parents (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2005)